oar

UK/ɔː/US/oɹ/

nounB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,019 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: oars

An oar is a long pole with a flat blade for rowing. Pull the oars, ship the oars, an oar in the water.

It is fixed to the boat at a pivot, which is the difference from a paddle, and the rower faces backwards. Put your oar in means to interfere in a conversation. Resting on your oars means stopping after doing well.

Definitions of oar

1nounoarA long pole with a flat blade for rowing.B1+
“He dipped the oars into the water and rowed us across the lake.”

oar is a tool.

Where it comes from

Old English ar names the implement, from a Germanic root. Old Norse ar is the same word.

Proto-Germanic
*airō — oar
Proto-West Germanic
*airu
Old English
ār
Middle English
ore — oar
English, today
oar

From Middle English ore (“oar”), from Old English ār, from Proto-West Germanic airu, from Proto-Germanic airō (“oar”). Cognate with Old Norse ár.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

oar in the wild

Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars.
Rowing (sport)
In sculling, each rower (or oarsman) holds two oars, one in each hand, while in sweeping each rower holds one oar with both hands.
Rowing (sport)
An oar is an implement used for water-borne propulsion.
Oar
Rowers grasp the oar at the other end.
Oar
In some strict terminologies, using oars for propulsion may be termed either "pulling" or "rowing," with different definitions for each.
Rowing

1 / 3

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

oarlock

← Vocabulary

oar