pod

To bear or produce pods

Noun

  1. A self-contained unit, container, or enclosure that holds, protects, or transports something.

    Synonyms: capsule case container hull husk shell seedpod vessel

    1. (botany) A seed case for legumes (e.g. peas, beans, peppers); a seedpod.

    2. A very small room or space for one person to inhabit, as in a capsule hotel.

    3. A small vehicle, especially used in emergency situations; see escape pod.

      • Near-synonym: escape pod
      • cart, that is clouted and shod, cart ladder and wimble, with perser and pod - 1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished...

      Synonyms: escape pod

    4. A nicotine cartridge.

    5. (obsolete, UK, dialect) A bag; a pouch.

  2. A small, self-contained unit within a larger system.

    1. A small section of a larger office, compartmentalised for a specific purpose.

    2. A subsection of a prison, containing a number of inmates.

  3. A group or collective.

    Synonyms: gam

    1. (collective, zoology) A group of whales, dolphins, seals, porpoises or hippopotami.

    2. A group of people who regularly interact.

    3. (broadcasting) A set of commercials to be shown together.

      • These matrilineal groups associate with related families, who are probably sister lineages, to form pods. - 2016, Joseph Henrich, chapter 8, in The Secret of Our Success […] , Princeton: Princeton University Press,...
      • For many people forming pods last year, finding compatible people to group with was not a cost but a goal. Private companies that create educational software for pods report that people prefer to group with their...

    4. (rugby) A small group (usually 3 or 4) of forwards working together as a group in open play.

  4. A lie-flat seat in business or first class.
  5. A tapered, cylindrical body of ore or minerals.

    1. A straight channel or groove in the body of certain forms of, usually tapered, augers and boring-bits.

  6. Clipping of podcast.
    • I'd started shopping at 2 a.m., and the pod I listened to while shopping was almost through, so had to be 3 damn near. - 2022, Sean Thor Conroe, Fuccboi, Hachette, →ISBN:
    • These ads are shown during commercial breaks when there is no game action. Usually, multiple spots are grouped into a pod of commercials. - 2014, Lisa P. Masteralexis, Carol A. Barr, Mary Hums, Principles and Practice...
  7. Clipping of isopod.

Origin

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English *pod ("seed-pod, husk, shell, outer covering"; attested in pod-ware (“legume seed; seed grain”)), itself possibly from Old English pād (“an outer garment, covering, coat, cloak”), from Proto-West Germanic *paidu, from Proto-Germanic *paidō (“coat, smock, shirt”), from Proto-Indo-European *baiteh₂- (“woolen clothes”). If so, then cognate with Old Saxon pēda (“skirt”), German dialectal Pfeid, Pfeit (“shirt”), Gothic 𐍀𐌰𐌹𐌳𐌰 (paida, “mantle, skirt”), and perhaps Albanian petk (“gown, garment, dress, suit”) and Ancient Greek βαίτη (baítē, “goat-skin, fur-coat, tent”).

Forms

pods

Hyponyms

iPod pea pod peapod seedpod

Related

podcast

Derived

azipod bagpod bean pod black pod bladderpod buddy pod coffee pod conopodous copperpod cosmopod crotalaria pod borer cryopod diaper pod drop pod earpod egg pod escape pod fringepod holopod lacepod lancepod lifepod like peas in a pod like two peas in a pod

Verb

  1. To bear or produce pods
    • Wherefore it was, that many ignorant Mardians, who had not pushed their investigations into the science of physiology, sagely divined, that the Tapparians must have podded into life like peas, instead of being otherwise...
    • David looked seawards along the river. He stared, rubbed his eyes, and stared again. One of the rocks seemed to have podded into something swollen, black and smooth. - 1939, Leonard Alfred George Strong, The Open Sky,...
    • In the herbaceous border many flowers had seeded and podded; spears of them, brown, now rose up behind the mauve blur of the michaelmas daisies. - 2012, Deborah Moggach, You Must Be Sisters, →ISBN, page 219:
  2. To remove peas from their case.
  3. To put into a pod or to enter a pod.
    • Thus the torpedoes will have to be stored internally or be podded into streamline containers. - 1955, Military Review - Volume 35, Issue 9, page 81:
    • Lycoming is working on a twin T53 or T55 turboprop installation whereby two engines would be podded together to drive a single propeller. - 1957, Aviation Week - Volume 66, page 23:
    • One, called An- 12BZ-2, was a single-point hose-and- drogue tanker similar to the RAF's Lockheed C-130K Hercules C.1K, except that the hose drum unit was podded, not built in. - 2004, Yefim Gordon, Dmitriy Komissarov,...
  4. To swell or fill.

Forms

pods podding podded