Word
rove
US/ˈɹoʊv/
UK/ɹˈəʊv/
Definition
v. to travel around without a specific plan or purpose. It is an old-fashioned word for wandering or moving freely.
v. to travel or move about without a fixed course or destination. Archaic in modern usage, though it persists in specific literary or historical contexts.
Examples
“The children rove through the fields looking for butterflies.”
“The old man spent his evenings roving the village streets, chatting with anyone who would listen.”
“The poet describes a life spent roving the deserts of the mind, seeking beauty in the silence of the unknown.”
Examples
simple
“The children rove through the fields looking for butterflies.”
contextual
“The old man spent his evenings roving the village streets, chatting with anyone who would listen.”
complex
“The poet describes a life spent roving the deserts of the mind, seeking beauty in the silence of the unknown.”
Real-World Examples
“A lone male roves the Arizona mountains, and a female has been spotted just across the border in Mexico.” “The wolf had roved about 1,200 miles .” Etymology
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”).
Inflected forms.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Word family
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/rove