Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A long, thin, usually wooden pole with a blade at one end, used to row or steer a boat.
  • noun A person who rows a boat, especially in a race.
  • intransitive verb To propel with or as if with oars or an oar.
  • intransitive verb To traverse with or as if with oars or an oar.
  • intransitive verb To move forward by or as if by rowing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A long wooden implement used for propelling a boat, barge, or galley.
  • noun In brewing, a blade or paddle with which the mash is stirred.
  • noun In zoöl., an oar-like appendage of an animal used for swimming, as the leg or antenna of an insect or crustacean, one of the parapodia of annelids, etc.
  • noun One who uses an oar; an oarsman; also, a waterman.
  • noun An obsolete spelling of ore.
  • To use an oar or oars; row.
  • To propel by or as by rowing.
  • To traverse by or as by means of oars.
  • To move or use as an oar.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An implement for impelling a boat, being a slender piece of timber, usually ash or spruce, with a grip or handle at one end and a broad blade at the other. The part which rests in the rowlock is called the loom.
  • noun An oarsman; a rower.
  • noun (Zoöl.) An oarlike swimming organ of various invertebrates.
  • noun [Prov. Eng.] the water rail.
  • noun an oar having the blade so curved as to afford a better hold upon the water in rowing.
  • noun to cease rowing, and lay the oars in the boat.
  • noun See under Feather.
  • noun to cease pulling, raising the oars out of water, but not boating them; to cease from work of any kind; to be idle; to rest.
  • noun to put something round that part which rests in the rowlock, to prevent noise in rowing.
  • noun to give aid or advice; -- commonly used of a person who obtrudes aid or counsel not invited.
  • noun to place them in the rowlocks.
  • noun To peak the oars, to lift them from the rowlocks and hold them perpendicularly, the handle resting on the bottom of the boat.
  • noun to allow them to trail in the water alongside of the boat.
  • noun to take them out of the rowlocks.
  • verb To row.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An implement used to propel a boat or a ship in the water, having a flat blade at one end, being rowed from the other end and being normally fastened to the vessel.
  • verb To row; to propel with oars.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an implement used to propel or steer a boat

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English or, from Old English ār.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English ār, from Old Norse ár.

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Examples

  • July 15, 2008 at 9:34 am excep teh wyte pantzes……..oar teh wyte shirtz…..oar oar oar

    ur bag has an angry - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • Each droplet of water that passes over my oar is as easily identifiable as a person, and the voice of the water is the call of a multitude, giving and taking names.

    365 tomorrows » 2008 » March : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2008

  • The singular form of retrices is rectrix which comes from the Latin word oar used to mean rower.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] Ashcraft 2010

  • The singular form of retrices is rectrix which comes from the Latin word oar used to mean rower.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] Dresler101 2010

  • The singular form of retrices is rectrix which comes from the Latin word oar used to mean rower.

    CreationWiki - Recent changes [en] Dresler101 2010

  • Also, to secure the oar from the weather (for I used it in mild breezes as a flagstaff on top of my pyramid from which to fly a flag I made me from one of my precious shirts) I contrived for it a covering of well-cured sealskins.

    Chapter 19 2010

  • Also, to secure the oar from the weather (for I used it in mild breezes as a flagstaff on top of my pyramid from which to fly a flag I made me from one of my precious shirts) I contrived for it a covering of well-cured sealskins.

    Chapter 19 2010

  • September 28th, 2005 at 9: 55 pm oar is great but on the show i think they did look nervous but thats pritty much how trhey always look when they are in concert what it kind of a bad so yea rock on

    O.A.R. on Leno 2005

  • Also, to secure the oar from the weather (for I used it in mild breezes as a flagstaff top of my pyramid from which to fly a flag I made me from one of my precious shirts), I contrived for it a covering of well-cured sealskins.

    Chapter 19 1915

  • A paddle, a sweep, or an oar, is called washee, and washee is also the verb.

    Chapter 16 1913

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