Definition of "arr"

Arr, matey! Tis a dangerous life, the sea – full of giant beasts, raging storms and wayward ships bobbing around like steel icebergs.

2004, Peter Walsh, How to Organize (Just About) Everything: More than 500 Step-by-Step Instructions for Everything from Organizing Your Closets to Planning a Wedding to Creating a Flawless Filing System, New York, N.Y.: Free Press, instruction 480

He did an imitation of a pirate: "Arr, Arr, Arr, me buckos."

2007, Howard [A.] Norman, Devotion, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, page 90

Suddenly a pirate voice said, "Arr, Arr, Arr. Are you looking for me gold?" Josh looked startled and Will began to laugh.

2008, Gwen Lepkowski, “Tornado”, in Cross-country Treasure Hunt (and the Mystery that Followed), Longwood, Fla.: Xulon Press, page 46

This distances the audience from the ripping yam element of the story, and for all the sails and stockades which decorate the stage, there are times when the pace drops and the inevitable oo-arring gets a bit coarse. One small pirate in the audience commented that it got a bit boring when they all stood around talking—and he was not entirely wrong.

2005, “Treasure Island: A New Adaptation by Grace Barnes”, in Theatre Record: The Chronicle of the British Stage, London: Shuttleworth, page 968

Pirates become a running joke between us. When she was a sophomore, I once served her artichokes, arugula, and arroz con pollo for dinner, and we "arred" our way through the entire meal.

2011, Sarah Bird, The Gap Year: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN 978-0-307-59279-8; 1st trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Gallery Books, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4516-7876-5, page 9

Why against printers all this noise? This summoning of blackguard boys? Why so sagacious in your guesses? Your effs, and tees, and arrs, and eſſes? Take my advice; to make you safe, I know a shorter way be half.

a. 1746 (date written), Jonathan Swift, “On the Irish Club”, in Thomas Sheridan and John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VIII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, page 78