1. To practice robbery on the seas;to wander about on the seas in piracy. [Obs.] Hakluyt.
2. Hence, to wander; to ramble; to rauge; to go, move, or pass without certain direction in any manner, by sailing, walking, riding, flying, or otherwise. For who has power to walk has power to rove. Arbuthnot.
3. (Archery)
Defn: To shoot at rovers; hence, to shoot at an angle of elevation, not at point-blank (rovers usually being beyond the point-blank range). Fair Venusson that with thy cruel dart At that good knoght cunningly didst rove. Spenser.
Syn.
— To wander; roam; range; ramble stroll.
ROVE
Rove, v. t.
1. To wander over or through. Roving the field, i chanced A goodly tree far distant to behold. milton.
2. To plow into ridges by turning the earth of two furrows together.
ROVE
Rove, n.
Defn: The act of wandering; a ramble. In thy nocturnal rove one moment halt. Young. Rove beetle (Zoöl.), any one of numerous species of beetles of the family Staphylinidæ, having short elytra beneath which the wings are folded transversely. They are rapid runners, and seldom fly.