(verb) : rŏto, āvi, ātum, 1, and n. rota.
* Act., to turn a thing round like a wheel; to swing round, whirl about (poet. and in post-Aug. prose; cf. torqueo).
* Lit.: Learchum bis terque per auras More rotat fundae,Ov. M. 4, 517; cf. id. ib. 9, 217; id. A. A. 2, 374: jactare caput et comas excutientem rotare, fanaticum est,Quint. 11, 3, 71: sanguineos orbes (i. e. oculos),to roll about,Val. Fl. 4, 235: ensem fulmineum, to brandish (in order to add force to the blow), Verg. A. 9, 441: telum,Liv. 42, 65, 10: telum in ora loquentis,Stat. Th. 9, 802: clipeum, Val Fl. 6, 551: saxa,Sen. Q. N. 3, 27, 6: flammam (venti),Lucr. 6, 202; cf.: (venti) trudunt res ante rapidique rotanti turbine portant,in a whirling tornado,id. 1, 295: flammae fumum,Hor. C. 4, 11, 11: se in vulnus (ursa),Luc. 6, 222: conreptum rotatumque sternit,Plin. 8, 16, 19, § 51.— Mid., to turn or go round in a circle, to roll round, revolve: Tyrrheni greges circumque infraque rotantur,Stat. Achill. 1, 56: circum caput igne rotato,Ov. M. 12, 296: poterisne rotatis Obvius ire polis?id. ib. 2, 74; cf.: nivibus rotatis (with glomerari),id. ib. 9, 221: sphaerico motu in orbem rotari, Macr Somn. Scip. 2, 14, 31.— *
* Neutr., = rotari, to turn or roll round, to revolve (very rare): parte ex aliā, quā saxa rotantia late Impulerat torrens,Verg. A. 10, 362 Serv. (cf.: volventia plaustra,id. G. 1, 163); so of a peacock spreading its tail out like a wheel,Col. 8, 11, 8.