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Webster 1913 Edition

Oar

Oar

(ōr)
,
n
[AS.
ār
; akin to Icel.
ār
, Dan.
aare
, Sw.
åra
; perh. akin to E.
row
, v. Cf.
Rowlock
.]
1.
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
.
☞ An oar is a kind of long paddle, which swings about a kind of fulcrum, called a rowlock, fixed to the side of the boat.
2.
An oarsman; a rower;
as, he is a good
oar
.
3.
(Zool.)
An oarlike swimming organ of various invertebrates.
Oar cock
(Zool.)
,
the water rail.
[Prov. Eng.]
–
Spoon oar
,
an oar having the blade so curved as to afford a better hold upon the water in rowing.
–
To boat the oars
,
to cease rowing, and lay the oars in the boat.
–
To feather the oars
.
See under
Feather
.
,
Verb.
T.
–
To lie on the oars
,
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.
–
To muffle the oars
,
to put something round that part which rests in the rowlock, to prevent noise in rowing.
–
To put in one’s oar
,
to give aid or advice; – commonly used of a person who obtrudes aid or counsel not invited.
–
To ship the oars
,
to place them in the rowlocks.
–
To toss the oars
,
To peak the oars, to lift them from the rowlocks and hold them perpendicularly, the handle resting on the bottom of the boat.
–
To trail oars
,
to allow them to trail in the water alongside of the boat.
–
To unship the oars
,
to take them out of the rowlocks.

Oar

,
Verb.
T.
&
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Oared
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Oaring
.]
To row.
“Oared himself.”
Shak.
Oared with laboring arms.
Pope.

Webster 1828 Edition

Oar

OAR

,
Noun.
An instrument for rowing boats, being a piece of timber round or square at one end, and flat at the other. The round end is the handle, and the flat end the blade.
To boat the oars, in seamanship, to cease rowing and lay the oars in the boat.
To ship the oars, to place them in the row-locks.

OAR

,
Verb.
I.
To row.

OAR

,
Verb.
T.
To impel by rowing.

Definition 2024

oar

oar

See also: OAR and öar

English

Noun

an oar

oar ‎(plural oars)

  1. 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.
  2. An oarsman; a rower.
    He is a good oar.
  3. (zoology) An oar-like swimming organ of various invertebrates.

Synonyms

  • (implement used to propel a boat): paddle

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

oar ‎(third-person singular simple present oars, present participle oaring, simple past and past participle oared)

  1. To row; to propel with oars.
    • 1950, Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast
      Turning the long tables upside down — and there were twelve of them — they seated themselves, one behind another, within the upturned table tops as though they were boats and were about to oar their way into some fabulous ocean.

Translations

Anagrams

West Frisian

Adjective

oar

  1. other
  2. different

Etymology

Old English ār, from Old Norse ár, from Proto-Germanic *airō ‎(“oar”).

Pronunciation

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