row 1
/roh/ , n.
1. a number of persons or things arranged in a line, esp. a straight line: a row of apple trees.
2. a line of persons or things so arranged: The petitioners waited in a row.
3. a line of adjacent seats facing the same way, as in a theater: seats in the third row of the balcony.
4. a street formed by two continuous lines of buildings.
5. Music. See tone row .
6. Checkers. one of the horizontal lines of squares on a checkerboard; rank.
7. hard or long row to hoe , a difficult task or set of circumstances to confront: At 32 and with two children, she found attending medical school a hard row to hoe.
v.t.
8. to put in a row (often fol. by up ).
[ 1175-1225; ME row ( e ); cf. OE raew ]
row 2
— rowable , adj. — rower , n.
/roh/ , v.i.
1. to propel a vessel by the leverage of an oar or the like.
v.t.
2. to propel (a vessel) by the leverage of an oar or the like.
3. to convey in a boat that is rowed.
4. to convey or propel (something) in a manner suggestive of rowing.
5. to require, use, or be equipped with (a number of oars): The captain's barge rowed twenty oars.
6. to use (oarsmen) for rowing.
7. to perform or participate in by rowing: to row a race.
8. to row against in a race: Oxford rows Cambridge.
n.
9. an act, instance, or period of rowing: It was a long row to the far bank.
10. an excursion in a rowboat: to go for a row.
[ bef. 950; ME rowen, OE rowan; c. ON roa; akin to L remus oar (see REMUS). Cf. rudder ]
row 3
/row/ , n.
1. a noisy dispute or quarrel; commotion.
2. noise or clamor.
v.i.
3. to quarrel noisily.
v.t.
4. Chiefly Brit. to upbraid severely; scold.
[ 1740-50; orig. uncert. ]
Syn. 1. spat, tiff, scrap, scrape, set-to.