Also Inflected form of reeve
rove
verb
1.
move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment
- “The gypsies roamed the woods”
- “roving vagabonds”
- “the wandering Jew”
- “The cattle roam across the prairie”
- “the laborers drift from one town to the next”
- “They rolled from town to town”
Origin
Probably from Middle English *roven, a Midlands variant of Northern Middle English raven (“to wander”), from Old Norse ráfa (“to rove; stray about”). Cognate with Icelandic ráfa (“to wander”), Scots rave (“to wander; stray; roam”).
Phrases
- rove beetle
Related words
Word family
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.