different between oar vs rowlock

English

Etymology

From Old English ?r, from Proto-Germanic *air? (“oar”). Cognate to Old Norse ár.

Pronunciation

• In British & some other non-rhotic accents:
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??/
  • (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /o?/
  • Homophones: aw, awe (in non-rhotic accents with the horse–hoarse merger)
• In US & some other rhotic accents:
  • (General American) enPR: ôr, IPA^(key): /??/
  • (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) enPR: ?r, IPA^(key): /o(?)?/
  • Homophones: ore, o'er; or (in accents with the horse-hoarse merger)
• Rhymes: -??(?)

Noun

oar (plural oars)

1. A type of lever used to propel a boat, having a flat blade at one end and a handle at the other, and pivoted in a rowlock atop the gunwale, whereby a rower seated in the boat and pulling the handle can pass the blade through the water by repeated strokes against the water's resistance, thus moving the boat.

   Synonym: paddle

2. An oarsman; a rower.

3. (zoology) An oar-like swimming organ of various invertebrates.

Derived terms

• stick one's oar in

Translations

Verb

oar (third-person singular simple present oars, present participle oaring, simple past and past participle oared)

1. (literary) To row; to travel with, or as if with, oars.
   • Turning the long tables upside down — and there were twelve of them — they seated themselves, one behind another, within the upturned table tops as though they were boats and were about to oar their way into some fabulous ocean.

Translations

Anagrams

• AOR, AoR, Ora, ROA, Rao, Roa, aro, ora

West Frisian

Adjective

oar

1. other
2. different

Inflection

This adjective needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

• feroarje

Further reading

• “oar (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011

English

Alternative forms

• rollock, rullock

Etymology

Probably from Old English ?rl?c, equivalent to oar + lock.

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) enPR: r?'l?k, IPA^(key): /???l?k/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: r?'l?k, IPA^(key): /???l?k/
• (US) enPR: rä'l?k, IPA^(key): /???l?k/

Noun

rowlock (plural rowlocks)

1. (nautical, chiefly Britain) a pivot attached to the gunwale (outrigger in a sport boat) of a boat that supports and guides an oar, and provides a fulcrum for rowing; an oarlock (mostly US).
   • 1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VII

     I took a good gap and a stretch, and was just going to unhitch and start when I heard a sound away over the water. I listened. Pretty soon I made it out. It was that dull kind of a regular sound that comes from oars working in rowlocks when it's a still night.

   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian, Collins, 1998, Chapter 8,

     Everything smelled salt and there was no noise except the swishing of water and the clop-clop of water against the sides and the splash of the oars and the jolting noise of the rowlocks.

   Synonyms: oarlock, thole, tholepin, thowel

Translations

References

• “rowlock”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.