rowlock

• rollock, rullock

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

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

rowlock (plural rowlocks)

1. (nautical, chiefly Britain) 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).
   • 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, Prince Caspian, Collins, 1998, Chapter 8,

     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.

   Synonym: (US) oarlock

• thole, tholepin, thowel

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