Part 425

2. A roll or sliver of wool or cotton drawn out and slighty twisted, preparatory to further process; a roving.

Rove, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Roved (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Roving.] [Cf. D. rooven to rob; akin to E. reave. See Reave, Rob.] 1. To practice robbery on the seas; to wander about on the seas in piracy. [Obs.] Hakluyt.

2. Hence, to wander; to ramble; to rauge; to go, move, or pass without certain direction in any manner, by sailing, walking, riding, flying, or otherwise.

For who has power to walk has power to rove.

Arbuthnot.

3. (Archery) To shoot at rovers; hence, to shoot at an angle of elevation, not at point-blank (rovers usually being beyond the point-blank range).

Fair Venus' son, that with thy cruel dart At that good knight so cunningly didst rove.

Spenser.

Syn. -- To wander; roam; range; ramble stroll.

Rove, v. t. 1. To wander over or through.

Roving the field, I chanced A goodly tree far distant to behold.

milton.

2. To plow into ridges by turning the earth of two furrows together.

Rove, n. The act of wandering; a ramble.

In thy nocturnal rove one moment halt.

Young.

Rove beetle (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of beetles of the family Staphylinidæ, having short elytra beneath which the wings are folded transversely. They are rapid runners, and seldom fly.

Rov"er (?), n. [D. roover a robber. See Rove, v. i.] 1. One who practices robbery on the seas; a pirate.

Yet Pompey the Great deserveth honor more justly for scouring the seas, and taking from the rovers 846 sail of ships.

Holland.

2. One who wanders about by sea or land; a wanderer; a rambler.

3. Hence, a fickle, inconstant person.

4. (Croquet) A ball which has passed through all the hoops and would go out if it hit the stake but is continued in play; also, the player of such a ball.

5. (Archery) (a) Casual marks at uncertain distances. Encyc. Brit.

(b) A sort of arrow. [Obs.]

All sorts, flights, rovers, and butt shafts.

B. Jonson.

At rovers, at casual marks; hence, at random; as, shooting at rovers. See def. 5 (a) above. Addison.