rod
a stick, wand, staff, or the like, of wood, metal, or other material.
a straight, slender shoot or stem of any woody plant, whether still growing or cut from the plant.
(in plastering or mortaring) a straightedge moved along screeds to even the plaster between them.
a stick used for measuring.
Archaic. a unit of linear measure, 5.5 yards or 16.5 feet (5.029 meters); linear perch or pole.
Archaic. a unit of square measure, 30.25 square yards (25.29 sq. m); square perch or pole.
a stick, or a bundle of sticks or switches bound together, used as an instrument of punishment.
punishment or discipline: Not one to spare the rod, I sent him to bed without dinner.
a wand, staff, or scepter carried as a symbol of office, authority, power, etc.
authority, sway, or rule, especially when tyrannical.
a slender bar or tube for draping towels over, suspending a shower curtain, etc.
Bible. a branch of a family; tribe.
a pattern, drawn on wood in full size, of one section of a piece of furniture.
Slang.
a pistol or revolver.
Vulgar. the penis.
Anatomy. one of the rodlike cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to low intensities of light.: Compare cone (def. 5).
Bacteriology. a rod-shaped microorganism.
Also called leveling rod, stadia rod. Surveying. a light pole, conspicuously marked with graduations, held upright and read through a surveying instrument in leveling or stadia surveying.
Metallurgy. round metal stock for drawing and cutting into slender bars.
to furnish or equip with a rod or rods, especially lightning rods.
to even (plaster or mortar) with a rod.
Metallurgy. to reinforce (the core of a mold) with metal rods.
Origin of rod
1Other words from rod
- rodless, adjective
- rodlike, adjective
Words Nearby rod
How to use rod in a sentence
So I asked the driver to honk the horn, which he does, and rod looks over.
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile | Robert Ward | January 3, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTAnd of course, rod, being rod, goes for it a hundred percent; his mouth drops open and he says, ‘What?’
The Story Behind Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance Smile | Robert Ward | January 3, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTrod Stewart and Diane Sawyer This is just highly entertaining.
The Most WTF Covers of ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside,’ Everyone’s Favorite Date-Rape Holiday Classic | Kevin Fallon | November 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTCreator rod Serling was compelled by the need “not to just entertain but to enlighten.”
How a War-Weary Vet Created ‘The Twilight Zone’ | Rich Goldstein | November 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe painting is of a human heart set inside a wind-up music box that has a metal rod poking out of the pulmonary artery.
And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousA connecting rod worked a balance-beam, which worked the air-pump, feed-pump, and plug-rod for moving the valves.
Life of Richard Trevithick, Volume II (of 2) | Francis TrevithickA piece of iron sticking out from the cross-head carried the plug-rod for working the gear-handles.
Life of Richard Trevithick, Volume II (of 2) | Francis TrevithickThereafter we were buffeted like chips in the swirling maw of a whirlpool; we fought our way rod by rod.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. SinclairThis is a minute, slender rod, which lies within and between the pus-corpuscles (Fig. 125), and is negative to Gram's stain.
A Manual of Clinical Diagnosis | James Campbell Todd
British Dictionary definitions for rod
/ (rɒd) /
a slim cylinder of metal, wood, etc; stick or shaft
a switch or bundle of switches used to administer corporal punishment
any of various staffs of insignia or office
power, esp of a tyrannical kind: a dictator's iron rod
a straight slender shoot, stem, or cane of a woody plant
See fishing rod
Also called: pole, perch
a unit of length equal to 5 1/2 yards
a unit of square measure equal to 30 1/4 square yards
a straight narrow board marked with the dimensions of a piece of joinery, as the spacing of steps on a staircase
a metal shaft that transmits power in axial reciprocating motion: piston rod, con(necting) rod Compare shaft (def. 5)
surveying another name (esp US) for staff 1 (def. 8)
Also called: retinal rod any of the elongated cylindrical cells in the retina of the eye, containing the visual purple (rhodopsin), which are sensitive to dim light but not to colour: Compare cone (def. 5)
any rod-shaped bacterium
a slang word for penis
US slang name for pistol (def. 1)
short for hot rod
Origin of rod
1Derived forms of rod
- rodlike, adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for rod
[ rŏd ]
One of the rod-shaped cells in the retina of the eye of many vertebrate animals. Rods are more sensitive to light than cones and are responsible for the ability to see in dim light. However, rods are insensitive to red wavelengths of light and do not contribute greatly to the perception of color. Compare cone.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Other Idioms and Phrases with rod
see hot rod; spare the rod.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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