OAR

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does oar mean? 

• OAR (noun)
  The noun OAR has 1 sense:

1. an implement used to propel or steer a boat

  Familiarity information: OAR used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OAR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An implement used to propel or steer a boat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("oar" is a kind of...):

implement (instrumentation (a piece of equipment or tool) used to effect an end)

Meronyms (parts of "oar"):

blade; vane (flat surface that rotates and pushes against air or water)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "oar"):

boat paddle; paddle (a short light oar used without an oarlock to propel a canoe or small boat)

scull (each of a pair of short oars that are used by a single oarsman)

scull (a long oar that is mounted at the stern of a boat and moved left and right to propel the boat forward)

sweep; sweep oar (a long oar used in an open boat)

 Context examples 

Though stoutly mittened, my fingers were cold, and they pained from the grip on the steering-oar.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

As he spoke a roar of voices and a roll of drums came from either galley, and the water was lashed into spray by the hurried beat of a hundred oars.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Silver, though he was almost killed already with fatigue, was set to an oar, like the rest of us, and we were soon skimming swiftly over a smooth sea.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She rowed as well as she did many other things, and though she used both hands, and Laurie but one, the oars kept time, and the boat went smoothly through the water.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I threw down the oar, and leaning my head upon my hands, gave way to every gloomy idea that arose.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

What would he not give for one such head to place between the two crossed oars above the mantelpiece in his snuggery at the Albany!

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He swore like a madman and jabbed at me with an oar, for he must have seen death in my eyes.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The Count in his box, then, was on a river in an open boat—propelled probably either by oars or poles, for the banks are near and it is working against stream.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

But I have learned in my miserable life, Charles, that there is a power which fashions things for us, though we may strive to thwart it, and that we are in truth driven by an unseen current towards a certain goal, however much we may deceive ourselves into thinking that it is our own sails and oars which are speeding us upon our way.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The queen, who often used to hear me talk of my sea-voyages, and took all occasions to divert me when I was melancholy, asked me whether I understood how to handle a sail or an oar, and whether a little exercise of rowing might not be convenient for my health?

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)