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View synonyms for rowel

rowel

[ rou-uhl ]

noun

  1. a small wheel with radiating points, forming the extremity of a spur.
  2. Veterinary Medicine. a piece of leather or the like inserted beneath the skin of a horse or other animal to promote drainage of an infection.


verb (used with object)

, row·eled, row·el·ing or (especially British) row·elled, row·el·ling.
  1. to prick or urge with a rowel.
  2. Veterinary Medicine. to insert a rowel in.

rowel

/ ˈraʊəl /

noun

  1. a small spiked wheel attached to a spur
  2. obsolete.
    vet science a piece of leather or other material inserted under the skin of a horse to act as a seton and allow drainage
“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


verb

  1. to goad (a horse) using a rowel
  2. obsolete.
    vet science to insert a rowel in (the skin of a horse) to allow drainage
“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
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Other Words From

  • un·roweled especially British un·rowelled adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of rowel1

1350–1400; Middle English rowelle < Middle French ruelle, Old French roel < Late Latin rotella, equivalent to Latin rot ( a ) wheel + -ella -elle
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Word History and Origins

Origin of rowel1

C14: from Old French roel a little wheel, from roe a wheel, from Latin rota
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Example Sentences

The rowel is one and a half or two inches in diameter, and the points are about twenty-five or thirty inches long.

The spurs were also richly gilded, the shank and rowel representing the thistle, and were the gift of the drummer-boys.

In an abandon he leaned far forward over his saddle, the rowel of his spur dug viciously into his horse's flank.

At the heel of one of his moccasins was buckled a huge iron spur, with a rowel five or six inches in diameter.

But he sprang to the right, when the rowel went into his flank, carrying with it the assurance that the game was up.

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