Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Rover
1.
One who practices robbery on the seas; a pirate.
Yet Pompey the Great deserveth honor more justly for scouring the seas, and taking from the
rovers
846 sail of ships. Holland.
2.
One who wanders about by sea or land; a wanderer; a rambler.
3.
Hence, a fickle, inconstant person.
4.
(Croquet)
A ball which has passed through all the hoops and would go out if it hit the stake but is continued in play; also, the player of such a ball.
5.
(Archery)
(a)
Casual marks at uncertain distances.
Encyc. Brit.
(b)
A sort of arrow.
[Obs.]
All sorts, flights,
rovers
, and butt shafts. B. Jonson.
At rovers
, at casual marks; hence, at random;
as, shooting
. See def. 5 at rovers
(a)
above. Addison.
Bound down on every side with many bands because it shall not run
at rovers
. Robynson (More’s Utopia).
Webster 1828 Edition
Rover
RO'VER
, n.1.
A wanderer; one who rambles about.2.
A fickle or inconstant person.3.
A robber or pirate; a freebooter. [So corsair is from L. cursus, curro, to run.At rovers, without any particular aim; at random; as shooting at rovers.
[I never heard this expression in the United States.]