Other forms: roving, roved
To rove is to wander from place to place with no fixed course. Rove the country, roving bands, his eyes roved.
It suggests movement without a destination, and it is slightly literary — modern speech says wander. A roving eye means somebody unfaithful, and a roving reporter is one with no fixed patch. Note rover, which named a wanderer and then a Mars vehicle and a car; and that the word came from Old Norse, like a great many English words for moving about.
1verbroveTo wander from place to place with no fixed course.
“As a young man, he roved across Europe with only a backpack and a guitar.”
rove is a wandering.
Also accepted in games: roam
Middle English roven came from Old Norse rafa, to stray about. Icelandic rafa and Scots rave, to wander, are the same word.
Middle English
*roven
English, today
rove
Probably from Middle English roven, a Midlands variant of Northern Middle English raven (“to wander”), from Old Norse ráfa (“to rove; stray about”). Cognate with Icelandic ráfa (“to wander”), Scots rave (“to wander; stray; roam”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA