Hypertext Webster Gateway: "rover"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

Rover \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.

Bound down on every side with many bands because
it shall not run at rovers. --Robynson
(More's
Utopia).

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

rover
n 1: someone who leads a wandering unsettled life [syn: {wanderer},
{roamer}, {bird of passage}]
2: an adult member of the Boy Scouts movement [syn: {scouter}]


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