rowing machine

[ roh-ing ]

noun

1. an exercise machine having a mechanism with two oarlike handles, foot braces, and a sliding seat, allowing the user to go through the motions of rowing in a racing shell.

rowing machine

noun

1. a device with oars and a sliding seat resembling a sculling boat, used to provide exercise

Word History and Origins

Origin of rowing machine¹

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75

Example Sentences

Emery arrives around 8am at Villa's Bodymoor Heath training HQ and staff using the gym at the centre are used to the sight of the manager arriving at 8.30pm after finishing at his desk, gathering details on his iPad while on the exercise bike before even making notes while using the rowing machine.

From BBC

He also has a fitness room with weights, treadmill and a rowing machine, while three parakeets fly around the complex.

From Seattle Times

The atmosphere of the classes certainly did not dispel the idea that a central goal of exercise was to have a particular body shape: Adults at the gym discussed macros and the calories they were burning on the rowing machine, and swapped anecdotes about fellow gym-goers who had come in overweight but now wore size 4 Lululemons.

From Slate

In the basement of his house in suburban Mamaroneck, N.Y., from which he commutes to his job in the city as chief risk officer for Natixis Americas, part of a multinational investment firm with $1.25 trillion in assets under management, he has created a miniature Ironman training facility, complete with a Vasa Swim Ergometer, a dry-land simulator that retails for $1,900 and resembles an inverted rowing machine.

From New York Times

Blunt had to forbid Garmus from stress-exercising on her rowing machine — a habit the author shares with her main character — so that she could be reached.

From New York Times