ROTE, noun A kind of violin or harp. obsolete

ROTE, noun [Latin rota, a wheel.]

Properly, a round of words; frequent repetition of words or sounds, without attending to the signification, or to principles and rules; a practice that impresses words in the memory without an effort of the understanding, and without the aid of rules. Thus children learn to speak by rote; they often repeat what they hear, till it becomes familiar to them. So we learn to sing by rote as we hear notes repeated, and soon learn to repeat them ourselves.

ROTE, verb transitive To fix in the memory by means of frequent repetition ourselves, or by hearing the repetition of others, without an effort of the understanding to comprehend what is repeated, and without the aid of rules or principles. [Little used.]

ROTE, verb intransitive To go out by rotation or succession. [Little used.]