Definition of "rove"

rove¹

/ɹəʊv/

verb
third-person singular simple present roves, present participle roving, simple past and past participle roved
1. (obsolete, intransitive) To shoot with arrows (at).
  Quotations
  And thou […] that with thy cruell dart / At that good knight so cunningly didst roue […]
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
2. (intransitive) To roam, or wander about at random, especially over a wide area.
  Quotations
  Now that he was in his prime, there was no simian in all the mighty forest through which he roved that dared contest his right to rule, nor did the other and larger animals molest him.
  1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co.; republished as chapter 1, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June,
3. (transitive) To roam or wander through.
  Quotations
  Roving the field, I chanced / A goodly tree far distant to behold.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
4. (transitive) To card wool or other fibres.
  Quotations
  Although both [flax and wool] must be roved and spun upon similar principles, each requires peculiar modifications in its machinery.
  1835, Andrew Ure, The Philosophy of Manufacturers
5. To twist slightly; to bring together, as slivers of wool or cotton, and twist slightly before spinning.
6. To draw through an eye or aperture.
7. To plough into ridges by turning the earth of two furrows together.
8. To practice robbery on the seas; to voyage about on the seas as a pirate.
  Quotations
  pirates, roving up and downe the sea
  1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […]
noun
plural roves
1. A copper washer upon which the end of a nail is clinched in boatbuilding.
2. A roll or sliver of wool or cotton drawn out and lightly twisted, preparatory to further processing; a roving.
3. The act of wandering; a ramble.
  Quotations
  In thy nocturnal rove one moment halt.
  1745, [Edward Young], “Night the Ninth and Last. The Consolation. Containing, among Other Things, I. A Moral Survey of the Nocturnal Heavens. II. A Night-Address to the Deity. […]”, in The Complaint: Or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, & Immortality, London: […] [Samuel Richardson] for A[ndrew] Millar […], and R[obert] Dodsley […], published 1750, page 318

rove²

/ɹəʊv/

verb
1. simple past of rive
2. simple past of reeve

Definition of "rove"

rove1

verb

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noun

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rove2

verb

rove¹

rove²