roving

From rove +‎ -ing

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹoʊvɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

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roving (comparative more roving, superlative most roving)

1. Moving about; having no fixed or permanent abode; travelling from place to place.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 139:

     The Northern Territory was dear to us both, and the fever for a roving life had not yet worn off, but some time elapsed before we could quite make up our minds whether to try our fortunes in Port Darwin again or not.

2. Of the eyes or gaze, inspecting all over; not staying fixed on one subject.

   His roving eyes never focused on anything specific.

   • 1989, Paul Chadwick, Concrete: Visible Breath, Dark Horse Books:

     It could complicate things for our little household. Particularly when Larry’s roving eye is factored in.

   • 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 4:

     There was a tall, green-eyed young woman with steeply slanting Central European cheekbones who particularly caught his sexually abstinent but still roving eye.

• wandering

From rove (“sliver of wool or cotton”), late 17th century, possibly from obsolete Middle English rove(n) (“to draw out, pull off”), itself a dialectal variant of rive (“to tear, split”).

roving (countable and uncountable, plural rovings)

1. A long and narrow bundle of fibre, usually used to spin woollen yarn or in felting.
2. The process of giving the first twist to yarn.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

roving

1. present participle and gerund of rove

• voring