rod

A straight, round stick, shaft, bar, cane, or staff.

Noun

  1. A straight, round stick, shaft, bar, cane, or staff.
    • The circus strong man proved his strength by bending an iron rod, and then straightening it.
    • Which makes the concept known as Rods From God the ultimate form of kinetic weaponry. This theoretical weapon would drop telephone pole sized rods of dense tungsten from a satellite in orbit. Picking up speed with each...
  2. A longitudinal pole used for forming part of a framework such as an awning or tent.
  3. A long slender usually tapering pole used for angling; fishing rod.
    • When I hooked a snake and not a fish, I got so scared I dropped my rod in the water.
  4. A stick, pole, or bundle of switches or twigs (such as a birch), used for personal defense or to administer corporal punishment by whipping.
    • So was I brought up: they tell mee, that in all my youth, I never felt rod [translating verges] but twice, and that very lightly. - 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 8, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book...
  5. An implement resembling and/or supplanting a rod (particularly a cane) that is used for corporal punishment, and metonymically called the rod, regardless of its actual shape and composition.
    • The judge imposed on the thief a sentence of fifteen strokes with the rod.
  6. A stick used to measure distance, by using its established length or task-specific temporary marks along its length, or by dint of specific graduated marks.
    • I notched a rod and used it to measure the length of rope to cut.
  7. A unit of length equal to 1 pole, a perch, ¹⁄₄ chain, 5+¹⁄₂ yards, 16+¹⁄₂ feet, or exactly 5.0292 meters (these being all equivalent).
    • ‘And this thicket, so full of a natural art, was in the immediate vicinity, within a few rods, of the dwelling of Madame Deluc, whose boys were in the habit of closely examining the shrubberies about them in search of...
    • In one of the villages I saw the next summer a cow tethered by a rope six rods long[…]. - 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod:
    • A few rods farther led him past the old black Presbyterian church, with its square tower, embowered in a stately grove; past the Catholic church, with its many crosses, and a painted wooden figure of St. James in a...
  8. An implement held vertically and viewed through an optical surveying instrument such as a transit, used to measure distance in land surveying and construction layout; an engineer's rod, surveyor's rod, surveying rod, leveling rod, ranging rod. The modern (US) engineer's or surveyor's rod commonly is eight or ten feet long and often designed to extend higher. In former times a surveyor's rod often was a single wooden pole or composed of multiple sectioned and socketed pieces, and besides serving as a sighting target was used to measure distance on the ground horizontally, hence for convenience was of one rod or pole in length, that is, 5+¹⁄₂ yards.
  9. A unit of area equal to a square rod, 30+¹⁄₄ square yards or ¹⁄₁₆₀ acre.
    • The house had a small yard of about six rods in size.
  10. A straight bar that unites moving parts of a machine, for holding parts together as a connecting rod or for transferring power as a driveshaft.
    • The engine threw a rod, and then went to pieces before our eyes, springs and coils shooting in all directions.
  11. A rod cell: a rod-shaped cell in the eye that is sensitive to light.
    • The rods are more sensitive than the cones, but do not discern color.
  12. Any of a number of long, slender microorganisms.
    • He applied a gram positive stain, looking for rods indicative of Listeria.

Origin

Etymology tree Old English *rodd Middle English rodde English rod From Middle English rodde, from Old English *rodd or *rodde (attested in dative plural roddum (“rod, pole”)), of uncertain origin, but probably from Proto-Germanic *rudd- (“stick, club”), from Proto-Indo-European *rewdʰ- (“to clear land”). Compare Old Norse rudda (“club”). For the root, compare English rid. Presumably unrelated to Proto-Germanic *rōdō (“rod, pole”).

Forms

rods

Related

crook

Derived

Aaron's rod anglerod Auer rod axlerod boning rod carpet rod cleaning rod connecting rod conrod con rod control rod counting rod coupling rod Cuisenaire rod curtain rod dicker-rod divining rod dowsing rod drawrod ferrod ferro ro roof: fit rod flatrod flying rod

Verb

  1. To reinforce concrete with metal rods.
  2. To furnish with rods, especially lightning rods.
  3. To penetrate sexually.
    • On impulse he moved around to the opposite side of the couple, in the direction which Grace's broad buttocks were pointed, for a full view of the big boned woman's back side. Now Grace wouldn't mind one iota if he...
  4. To hot rod.
    • There were three clear sets, more than what you might expect at Heartbreak Point, given all the juvies rodding in and out of there with their girlfriends. - 2007, Dana Stabenow, A Deeper Sleep, →ISBN, page 45:

Forms

rods rodding rodded