Oar
Oar (ōr) , noun
[Anglo-Saxon ār; akin to Icelandic ār, Danish aare, Swedish åra; perh. akin to English row, v. Compare 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.
(Zoology) An oarlike swimming organ of various invertebrates.
Collocations (11)
Oar cock , the water rail. [Provincial English]
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.
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, transitive and intransitive
To row.
Oared himself.
Oared with laboring arms.