Rover

Noun



 * 1)  A randomly selected target.
 * 1890 "By my hilt! no. There was little Robby Withstaff, and Andrew Salblaster, and Wat Alspaye, who broke the neck of the German. Mon Dieu! what men they were! Take them how you would, at long butts or short, hoyles, rounds, or rovers, better bowmen never twirled a shaft over their thumb-nails."  — Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company, Chapter 22.
 * 1) One who roves.
 * 1846 But these islands, undisturbed for years, relapsed into their previous obscurity; and it is only recently that anything has been known concerning them. Once in the course of a half century, to be sure, some adventurous rover would break in upon their peaceful repose. and astonished at the unusual scene, would be almost tempted to claim the merit of a new discovery. — Herman Melville, Typee, Chapter 1.
 * 1) A vehicle for exploring extraterrestrial bodies.
 * The Mars Exploration Rovers will act as robot geologists while they are on the surface of Mars. NASA site.
 * 1) Position in Australian Rules football, one of three of a team's followers, who follow the ball around the ground. Formerly a position for short players, rovers in professional leagues are frequently over 183 cm (6').

Noun

 * 1) A pirate or pirate ship.
 * 1719 The first was this: our ship making her course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and the African shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make. — Daniel Defoe, Robinnson Crusoe, Chapter 2.

Thesaurus
Ahasuerus, Ancient Mariner, Argonaut, Blackbeard, Captain Hook, Captain Kidd, Flying Dutchman, Goliard, Henry Morgan, Jean Lafitte, Odysseus, Oisin, Ossian, Ulysses, air pirate, airplane hijacker, bird of passage, buccaneer, bum, corsair, drifter, floater, freebooter, gad, gadabout, go-about, gypsy, hobo, itinerant, mover, nomad, peregrinator, peregrine, peripatetic, picaroon, pirate, privateer, rambler, roamer, rolling stone, runabout, sea dog, sea king, sea robber, sea rover, sea wolf, skyjacker, sojourner, straggler, stroller, strolling player, tourist, tramp, traveller, troubadour, vagabond, vagrant, viking, visitant, wanderer, wandering minstrel, wandering scholar, wayfarer

Etymology 1
roven:

Etymology 2
From, roven, to rob. Cognate with Danish and Norwegian røver:, Swedish rövare:

Noun

 * Russian:, скиталец, странник


 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 探測漫遊者, 探测漫游者
 * Japanese: ローバー


 * Russian:,  , планетоход

Verb

 * 1) to order give an order

Noun

 * 1) robber

Related terms

 * roof

Derived terms

 * roversnest
 * struikrover

Anagrams

 * vrore