different between oarlock vs rowlock

English

Etymology

oar +? lock

Noun

oarlock (plural oarlocks)

1. A device attached to the gunwale of a rowboat to hold the oars in place while rowing.
   • 1906: Horatio Alger, Joe the Hotel Boy [1]

     But, as luck would have it, scarcely had he started to row his boat again when an oarlock broke, and so it took him the best part of an hour to make the trip.

Synonyms

• (UK) rowlock

Translations

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.