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Jul 4, 2018
This week’s theme
Verbs

This week’s words
forswear
circumvallate
rowel
subduct
contund

rowel
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

rowel

PRONUNCIATION:
(ROU-uhl)

MEANING:
noun: A small spiked wheel at the end of a spur attached behind the shoes of a rider and used to goad a horse.
verb tr.: To prick; to vex.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Old French roele, from Latin rotella (small wheel), from rota (wheel). Earliest documented use: 1299.

USAGE:
“Against the luminous sky the rays of her halo were spikes of darkness roweling the air.”
Henry Roth; Call It Sleep; 1934.

See more usage examples of rowel in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue. -Robert King Merton, sociologist (4 Jul 1910-2003)

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