Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

row1

[roh]
See more synonyms for row on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a number of persons or things arranged in a line, especially a straight line: a row of apple trees.
  2. a line of persons or things so arranged: The petitioners waited in a row.
  3. a line of adjacent seats facing the same way, as in a theater: seats in the third row of the balcony.
  4. a street formed by two continuous lines of buildings.
  5. Music. tone row.
  6. Checkers. one of the horizontal lines of squares on a checkerboard; rank.
Show More
verb (used with object)
  1. to put in a row (often followed by up).
Show More
Idioms
  1. hard/long row to hoe, a difficult task or set of circumstances to confront: At 32 and with two children, she found attending medical school a hard row to hoe.
Show More

Origin of row1

1175–1225; Middle English row(e); compare Old English rǣw

row2

[roh]
verb (used without object)
  1. to propel a vessel by the leverage of an oar or the like.
Show More
verb (used with object)
  1. to propel (a vessel) by the leverage of an oar or the like.
  2. to convey in a boat that is rowed.
  3. to convey or propel (something) in a manner suggestive of rowing.
  4. to require, use, or be equipped with (a number of oars): The captain's barge rowed twenty oars.
  5. to use (oarsmen) for rowing.
  6. to perform or participate in by rowing: to row a race.
  7. to row against in a race: Oxford rows Cambridge.
Show More
noun
  1. an act, instance, or period of rowing: It was a long row to the far bank.
  2. an excursion in a rowboat: to go for a row.
Show More

Origin of row2

before 950; Middle English rowen, Old English rōwan; cognate with Old Norse rōa; akin to Latin rēmus oar. Cf. rudder
Related formsrow·a·ble, adjectiverow·er, nounun·der·row·er, noun

row3

[rou]
noun
  1. a noisy dispute or quarrel; commotion.
  2. noise or clamor.
Show More
verb (used without object)
  1. to quarrel noisily.
Show More
verb (used with object)
  1. Chiefly British. to upbraid severely; scold.
Show More

Origin of row3

First recorded in 1740–50; origin uncertain

Synonyms

See more synonyms for row on Thesaurus.com
1. spat, tiff, scrap, scrape, set-to.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for rowed

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • Halbert looked after him, enviously, as he rowed the boat out into the stream.

    Brave and Bold

    Horatio Alger

  • But they, deaf alike to the song and the sorcery, rowed harder than ever.

    Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew

    Josephine Preston Peabody

  • Dick turned the oars and rowed cautiously toward the island.

    The Dare Boys of 1776

    Stephen Angus Cox

  • She waved her hand to them apathetically and rowed slowly on.

    A Spirit in Prison

    Robert Hichens

  • Then he, too, got into a boat and was rowed away across the calm water to the island.

    A Spirit in Prison

    Robert Hichens

British Dictionary definitions for rowed

row1

noun
  1. an arrangement of persons or things in a linea row of chairs
    1. mainly Britisha street, esp a narrow one lined with identical houses
    2. (capital when part of a street name)Church Row
  3. a line of seats, as in a cinema, theatre, etc
  4. maths a horizontal linear arrangement of numbers, quantities, or terms, esp in a determinant or matrix
  5. a horizontal rank of squares on a chessboard or draughtboard
  6. in a row in succession; one after the otherhe won two gold medals in a row
  7. a hard row to hoe a difficult task or assignment
Show More

Word Origin

Old English rāw, rǣw; related to Old High German rīga line, Lithuanian raiwe strip

row2

noun
  1. a noisy quarrel or dispute
  2. a noisy disturbance; commotionwe couldn't hear the music for the row next door
  3. a reprimand
  4. give someone a row informal to scold someone; tell someone off
Show More
verb
  1. (intr often foll by with) to quarrel noisily
  2. (tr) archaic to reprimand
Show More

Word Origin

C18: origin unknown

row3

verb
  1. to propel (a boat) by using oars
  2. (tr) to carry (people, goods, etc) in a rowing boat
  3. to be propelled by means of (oars or oarsmen)
  4. (intr) to take part in the racing of rowing boats as a sport, esp in eights, in which each member of the crew pulls one oarCompare scull (def. 6)
  5. (tr) to race against in a boat propelled by oarsOxford row Cambridge every year
Show More
noun
  1. an act, instance, period, or distance of rowing
  2. an excursion in a rowing boat
Show More
See also row over
Derived Formsrower, nounrowing, noun

Word Origin

Old English rōwan; related to Middle Dutch roien, Middle High German rüejen, Old Norse rōa, Latin rēmus oar
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for rowed

row

n.1

"line of people or things," Old English ræw "a row, line; succession, hedge-row," probably from Proto-Germanic *rai(h)waz (cf. Middle Dutch rie, Dutch rij "row;" Old High German rihan "to thread," riga "line;" German Reihe "row, line, series;" Old Norse rega "string"), possibly from PIE root *rei- "to scratch, tear, cut" (cf. Sanskrit rikhati "scratches," rekha "line"). Meaning "a number of houses in a line" is attested from mid-15c., originally chiefly Scottish and northern English. Phrase a hard row to hoe attested from 1823, American English.

Show More

row

v.

"propel with oars," Old English rowan "go by water, row" (class VII strong verb; past tense reow, past participle rowen), from Proto-Germanic *ro- (cf. Old Norse roa, Dutch roeien, West Frisian roeije, Middle High German rüejen), from PIE root *ere- (1) "to row" (cf. Sanskrit aritrah "oar;" Greek eressein "to row," eretmon "oar," trieres "trireme;" Latin remus "oar;" Lithuanian iriu "to row," irklas "oar;" Old Irish rome "oar," Old English roðor "rudder").

Show More

row

n.2

"noisy commotion," 1746, Cambridge University slang, of uncertain origin, perhaps related to rousel "drinking bout" (c.1600), a shortened form of carousal. Klein suggests a back-formation from rouse (n.), mistaken as a plural (cf. pea from pease).

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with rowed

row

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.