Definition of "rowlock" [row•lock]

• Chiefly British An oarlock. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Kevin Wilkinson's simple metal dinghy, propelled by a single scull from a rowlock at the stern, maintains one of the oldest crossings of the Mersey – now transferred to the canal because the nearby river itself is bridged."
• "He saw the boat boys knocked about, and one of them put in irons for three days with nothing to eat for the crime of breaking a rowlock while pulling."
• "Their plan was as follows: The men were each to take their oar, cushion, and rowlock thong, and, going overland from Corinth to the sea on the Athenian side, to get to Megara as quickly as they could, and launching forty vessels, which happened to be in the docks at Nisaea, to sail at once to Piraeus."