Noun “All oars ho!” the boatswain ordered Verb since the wind had completely died, they had to oar the sailboat back to shore
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
At the signal, Thoms pulled so hard the oar broke, forcing officials to postpone the team’s heat. Kim O'connell, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 July 2022 Instead of strengthening the oar, the tweak may have weakened its blade. Kim O'connell, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 July 2022 Another guide slaps an oar, and another bellows out. Rachel Walker, Washington Post, 4 Aug. 2022 At the start, Thoms found himself with an oar that had been modified by another rower. Kim O'connell, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 July 2022 Eventually, the scruffy salt-and-pepper-bearded man lifts his oar in triumph and flashes a grin. Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 19 July 2022 Also, try not to catch a crab — aka do a faulty stroke where the oar is under water too long becoming jammed. Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune, 28 June 2022 Police have searched Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira's boat and seized ammunition and an oar. Harold Maass, The Week, 15 June 2022 It was delivered by Jack Hawkins, playing the Roman consul in command of a naval fleet, to galley slave Charlton Heston, chained to his oar in the bowels of one of the warships. Ted Diadiun, cleveland, 19 Mar. 2022
Verb
Mute swans do put on bursts of speed by oaring with their huge webbed feet.National Geographic, 19 Oct. 2016 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English oore, ore, going back to Old English ār, going back to dialectal Germanic *airō (whence Old Norse ár "oar"), of uncertain origin
Note: The presumed etymon *airō is attested only in Scandinavian Germanic and Old English; it is apparently a loanword from Scandinavian into Finnic languages (North Saami áiru "oar," Finnish airo, Estonian aer). The Germanic word has been compared with Greek oíāx "handle of a rudder, tiller" oiḗïon "tiller, rudder," Homeric oíēkes "appurtenance on a yoke," Sanskrit īṣā́ "shaft, thill," Hittite hišša-, Czech oj, Slovene ojệ, ojệsa, all going back to Indo-European *h2(o)iH-s- "pole, shaft" (with the meaning "rudder" apparently secondary in Greek). However, if *airō goes back to *aizō the expected Old Norse outcome would be *eir rather than ār; additionally, the sense shift from "shaft of a cart" to "oar" is not unobjectionable.