rowel
To use a rowel on (something), especially to drain fluid.
transitive
To fit with spurs.
transitive
To apply the spur to.
transitive
When the first dogs barked Glanton roweled his horse forward and they came out of the trees and across the dry scrub with the long necks of the horses leaning out of the dust avid as hounds […].
To incite; to goad.
figuratively, transitive
He would have been completely ignorant of what was going on if Frank, periodically roweled by the viciously anti-labor stand of the Pittsburgh newspapers, hadn't felt the need of an audience.
Where it comes from
From Middle English rowel, rowell, rowelle, from Old French roel, roiele (compare modern French rouelle), from Late Latin rotella, diminutive of Latin rota (“wheel”). Doublet of rotella.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry rowel (CC BY-SA 4.0).