rowlock

English

Alternative forms

• rollock, rullock

Etymology

Probably from Old English ārlōc, equivalent to oar + lock.

Pronunciation

• (US, UK) enPR: rŭ'lək, IPA^(key): /ˈɹʌlək/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: rŏ'lək, IPA^(key): /ˈɹɒlək/
• (US) enPR: rä'lək, IPA^(key): /ˈɹɑlək/

Noun

rowlock (plural rowlocks)

1. (nautical, chiefly British) A usually U-shaped pivot attached to the gunwale (outrigger in a sport boat) of a boat that supports and guides an oar, and provides a fulcrum for rowing; an oarlock (mostly US).

   Synonym: (US) oarlock

   • 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:

     I took a good gap and a stretch, and was just going to unhitch and start when I heard a sound away over the water. I listened. Pretty soon I made it out. It was that dull kind of a regular sound that comes from oars working in rowlocks when it's a still night.

   • 1951, C. S. Lewis, chapter 8, in Prince Caspian, Collins, published 1998:

     Everything smelled salt and there was no noise except the swishing of water and the clop-clop of water against the sides and the splash of the oars and the jolting noise of the rowlocks.

Related terms

• thole, tholepin, thowel

Translations

support for an oar

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: ключ (bg) m (ključ)
• Catalan: escàlem (ca) m, escalamera f
• Chinese: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: dol (nl) m
• Finnish: hankain (fi), hankaintappi
• French: dame de nage (fr) f
• Galician: tolete m, chumaceira (gl) f
• German: Dolle (de) f
• Greek: σκαρμός (el) m (skarmós)
• Gujarati: please add this translation if you can
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: glacán m, leaba iomartha f, roillic f, dola m
• Italian: scalmiera (it) f, forcola f
• Latin: scalmus m
• Malay: please add this translation if you can
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: rōraka
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: åregaffel (no) m, tollegaffel m, tollepinne m

  Nynorsk: hå m, keip m, keipe f, tollegang m

• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: forqueta f
• Russian: уклю́чина (ru) f (ukljúčina)
• Spanish: horquilla (es) f
• Swedish: årtull (sv) c
• Tagalog: lulubungan
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: ıskarmoz (tr)
• Welsh: rhwyfbin m, bwlch rhodli m

References

• “rowlock”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.