rove

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To wander about at random, especially over a wide area; roam.
2. v. To roam or wander around, over, or through. See Synonyms at wander.
3. n. An act of wandering about, over, around, or through.
4. v. To card (wool).
5. v. To put (fibers) through an eye or opening.
6. v. To stretch and twist (fibers) before spinning; ravel out.
7. n. A slightly twisted and extended fiber or sliver.
8. v. Nautical A past tense and a past participle of reeve².

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To wander at pleasure or without definite aim; pass the time in going about freely; range at random, or as accident or fancy may determine; roam; ramble.
2. To aim, as in archery or other sport, especially at some accidental or casual mark. See roving mark, below.
3. To act the rover; lead a wandering life of robbery, especially on the high seas; rob.
4. To have rambling thoughts; be in a delirium; rave; be light-headed; hence, to be in high spirits; be full of fun and frolic. [Scotch.]
5. Synonyms Roam, Wander, etc. See ramble, v.
6. To wander over; roam about.
7. . To discharge or shoot, as an arrow, at rovers, or in roving. See rover, 5.
8. To plow into ridges, as a field, by turning one furrow upon another.
9. n. The act of roving; a ramble; a wandering.
10. To draw through an eye or aperture; bring, as wool or cotton, into the form which it receives before being spun into thread; card into flakes. as wool, etc.; slub; sliver.
11. To draw out into thread; ravel out.
12. n. A roll of wool, cotton, etc., drawn out and slightly twisted; a slub.
13. n. A diamond-shaped washer placed over the end of a rove clench-nail, which is riveted down upon it.
14. n. Preterit and past participle of reeve.
15. n. An obsolete form of roof.
16. n. A unit of weight, the arroba, formerly used in England. The arroba was 25 pounds of Castile, and in England 25 pounds avoirdupois was called a rove. The arroba in Portugal contained 32 pounds.
17. In mech., to turn; make round: said particularly of turning stone: as, to rove a millstone.

Wiktionary

1. v. obsolete, intransitive To shoot with arrows (at).
2. v. intransitive To roam, or wander about at random, especially over a wide area.
3. v. transitive To card wool or other fibres.
4. v. Simple past of rive.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To draw through an eye or aperture.
2. v. To draw out into flakes; to card, as wool.
3. v. To twist slightly; to bring together, as slivers of wool or cotton, and twist slightly before spinning.
4. n. A copper washer upon which the end of a nail is clinched in boat building.
5. n. A roll or sliver of wool or cotton drawn out and slighty twisted, preparatory to further process; a roving.
6. v. obsolete To practice robbery on the seas; to wander about on the seas in piracy.
7. v. Hence, to wander; to ramble; to rauge; to go, move, or pass without certain direction in any manner, by sailing, walking, riding, flying, or otherwise.
8. v. (Archery) To shoot at rovers; hence, to shoot at an angle of elevation, not at point-blank (rovers usually being beyond the point-blank range).
9. v. To wander over or through.
10. v. To plow into ridges by turning the earth of two furrows together.
11. n. The act of wandering; a ramble.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. move about aimlessly or without any destination, often in search of food or employment