rover
/ˈɹoʊvɚ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.76 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One who roves: a person or animal that travels around, especially over a wide area, without a fixed destination; a nomad, a roamer, a wanderer.
noun
A restless, unsteady person who does not settle down; specifically (historical), a flirtatious, unfaithful man; a rake.
Dated
noun
Also rover ticket: a person who has a ticket for an event, performance, etc., but no assigned seat, and so has to find a place to sit or stand.
noun
A defensive back position whose coverage responsibilities are a combination of those of a cornerback, linebacker, and safety; also, a player playing this position.
Example Sentences
- "But these islands, undisturbed for years, relapsed into their previous obscurity; and it is only recently that anything has been known concerning them. Once in the course of a half century, to be sure, some adventurous rover would break in upon their peaceful repose. and astonished at the unusual scene, would be almost tempted to claim the merit of a new discovery."
- "I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, / To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife; / And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover, / And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over."
- "Near-synonyms: see Thesaurus:libertine"
- "She is a rover and dislikes any sort of ties, physical or emotional."
- "Give him the word, that I'm not a rover, and tell him that his lonely days are over."
- "September 19, 2005, Dave Lane, Mars Exploration Rover "OPPORTUNITY" NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is currently traveling southward over a pavement of outcrop dubbed the "Erebus Highway." "Erebus Crater," the rover's next target, lies less than 100 meters (328 feet) south of its current position"
Etymology
From rove (“to roam, wander; (archery) to shoot an arrow randomly”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns from verbs). Rove is derived from Late Middle English *roven, rove (“to wander”); further etymology uncertain, possibly an English Midlands variant of Northern England raven, rave (“to rove, stray, wander”), possibly from Old Norse ráfa (“to roam, wander”) (although rove and rave are only attested much later), possibly from Proto-Germanic *wabōną, *wabjaną (“to cause to weave; to entangle, wrap”), from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɹoʊvɚ/
- British English: /ˈɹəʊvə/
Usage
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
rovery