subs. (old).—1. A busy body: hence, TO PUT (or SHOVE) ONE’S OAR IN = to interfere; to meddle officiously.—GROSE (1785).
1596. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, 37. A busie-body, medler in other’s matters, one that hath an OARE in other’s boates.
1597. G. HARVEY, The Trimming of Thomas Nashe, in Works (GROSART), III. 33. Think not that I thinke all those to haue good wits, that will talke of euerie subiect, and HAUE AN OARE (as we say) IN euerie mans boate: for manie fooles doo so, and so doost thou.
1606. The Return from Parnassus, i., 2 [DODSLEY, Old Plays, 1874, ix. 115].
| Lodge for his OAR in ev’ry paper boat, | |
| He, that turns over Galen ev’ry day, | |
| To sit and simper Euphues’ Legacy. |
1614. JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, iii. Pray thee mind him not, fellow; he’ll HAVE AN OAR IN everything.
1659. HOWELL, English Proverbs, 5. He will HAVE AN OAR in every ones Boat. [He likes meddling with other people’s business.]
1731. COFFEY, The Devil to Pay, Sc. 2. Lady. I say meddle with your own Affairs; I will govern my own House without your PUTTING IN AN OAR.
1843. W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Scamps of London, iii. 1. I’ll thank you not to PUT YOUR OAR in my private affairs.
1874. E. WOOD, Johnny Ludlow, 1st S. No. III. 41. If you SHOVE IN YOUR OAR, Johnny Ludlow, or presume to interfere with me, I’ll pummel you to powder.
1892. A. C. GUNTER, Miss Dividends, ix. Mr. Kruger … thinks to himself, ‘Time for Lot to PUT HIS OAR IN.’
2. (colloquial).—(1) In pl. = a waterman: i.e., OARS (= two men) as opposed to SCULLS, q.v. = one man); and (2) an oarsman.
1611. R. TARLTON, Jests [HALLIWELL]. Tarlton being one Sunday at court all day, caused a paire of OARES to tend him, who at night called on him to be gone. Tarlton, being a carousing, drunk so long to the watermen, that one of them was bumpsie; and so, indeede, were all three for the most part.
FIRST-OARS, subs. phr. (common).—A favorite; a person or thing holding the first or highest place.
1774. DIBDIN, The Waterman, i. 5, ‘The Jolly Young Waterman.’
| He was always FIRST OARS when the fine city ladies, | |
| In a party to Ranelagh went or Vauxhall. |
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, xxxiii. But was it the maidens of humble life only who soothed, consoled, and supported him? No! He was always FIRST OARS with the fine City ladies.
TO LIE (or REST) ON ONE’S OARS, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To rest; to take things easy.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 3 Aug., 3, 2. The Jacobyns, who were not present in force, and who have rested on their OARS since the famous muster of 116, were not at all sorry that the division was decently let slip.
