Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word oar. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word oar, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say oar in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word oar you have here. The definition of the word oar will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofoar, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
A type of lever used to propel a boat, having a flat blade at one end and a handle at the other, and pivoted in a rowlock atop the gunwale, whereby a rower seated in the boat and pulling the handle can pass the blade through the water by repeated strokes against the water's resistance, thus moving the boat.
The oar snaps in his hand Before he reaches dry land But the sound doesn't deafen his smile Just pokes at wet sand With an oar in his hand Floats off down the river Nile Floats off down the river Nile...
oar (third-person singular simple presentoars, present participleoaring, simple past and past participleoared)
(literary) To row; to travel with, or as if with, oars.
1866, Thomas S. Muir, Barra Head, page 52:
The weather was fine, and whilst oaring along I would fain have landed on the islands between; but fearful of a change, and already half worn-out by my previous trail, I let them go by with the comforting resolve of turning them up on some future occasion.
Turning the long tables upside down — and there were twelve of them — they seated themselves, one behind another, within the upturned table tops as though they were boats and were about to oar their way into some fabulous ocean.
1996, Peter J. Bowler, Life's Splendid Drama:
In Nopsca's theory, flight evolved as a means of running more quickly over the ground: "Birds originated from bipedal, long-tailed cursorial reptiles which during running oared along in the air by flapping their free anterior extremities."