rod

¹ American  

[rod] / rɒd /

noun

1. a stick, wand, staff, or the like, of wood, metal, or other material.

2. a straight, slender shoot or stem of any woody plant, whether still growing or cut from the plant.

3. fishing rod.

4. (in plastering or mortaring) a straightedge moved along screeds to even the plaster between them.

5. a stick used for measuring.

6. Archaic. a unit of linear measure, 5.5 yards or 16.5 feet (5.029 meters); linear perch or pole.

7. Archaic. a unit of square measure, 30.25 square yards (25.29 sq. m); square perch or pole.

8. a stick, or a bundle of sticks or switches bound together, used as an instrument of punishment.

9. punishment or discipline.

   Not one to spare the rod, I sent him to bed without dinner.

10. a wand, staff, or scepter carried as a symbol of office, authority, power, etc.

11. authority, sway, or rule, especially when tyrannical.

12. lightning rod.

13. a slender bar or tube for draping towels over, suspending a shower curtain, etc.

14. Bible. a branch of a family; tribe.

15. a pattern, drawn on wood in full size, of one section of a piece of furniture.

16. Slang.

    1. a pistol or revolver.

    2. Vulgar. the penis.

17. Anatomy. one of the rodlike cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to low intensities of light.

18. Bacteriology. a rod-shaped microorganism.

19. Also called stadia rod.  Also called leveling rod.  Surveying. a light pole, conspicuously marked with graduations, held upright and read through a surveying instrument in leveling or stadia surveying.

20. Metallurgy. round metal stock for drawing and cutting into slender bars.

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verb (used with object)

rodded, rodding

1. to furnish or equip with a rod or rods, especially lightning rods.

2. to even (plaster or mortar) with a rod.

3. Metallurgy. to reinforce (the core of a mold) with metal rods.

Rod ² American  

[rod] / rɒd /

noun

1. a male given name, form of Roderick or Rodney.

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rod British  

/ rɒd /

noun

1. a slim cylinder of metal, wood, etc; stick or shaft

2. a switch or bundle of switches used to administer corporal punishment

3. any of various staffs of insignia or office

4. power, esp of a tyrannical kind

   a dictator's iron rod

5. a straight slender shoot, stem, or cane of a woody plant

6. See fishing rod

7. Also called: pole.   perch. 

   1. a unit of length equal to 5 1/ 2 yards

   2. a unit of square measure equal to 30 1/ 4 square yards

8. a straight narrow board marked with the dimensions of a piece of joinery, as the spacing of steps on a staircase

9. a metal shaft that transmits power in axial reciprocating motion Compare shaft

   piston rod, con(necting) rod

10. surveying another name (esp US) for staff 1

11. 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

12. any rod-shaped bacterium

13. a slang word for penis

14. slang name for pistol

15. short for hot rod

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rod Scientific  

/ rŏd /

1. 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.

2. Compare cone

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rod Idioms  

1. see hot rod; spare the rod.

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Usage

What else does rod mean? Rod can refer to a stick, handgun, car, parts of the eye, and even, well, the penis, among many other things. ROD can additionally serve as an acronym for the slang expression ride or die.

Other Word Forms

• rodless adjective
• rodlike adjective

Etymology

Origin of rod

before 1150; Middle English rodd, late Old English; akin to Old Norse rudda club

Explanation

A rod is a bar or a stick, like the curtain rods in your windows or the steel rods inside the structure of a building that help make it sturdy. A rod can be a staff, like a walking stick, or a metal bar used in construction projects. In tarot card decks, rods are are a suit that's also known as "wands" or "batons." You fish with a rod too, a long flexible pole. Most parents today disagree with the old-fashioned saying, "Spare the rod and spoil the child," which basically means "your kid will be spoiled if you don't hit them with a stick now and then."

Example Sentences

He too spent years getting Botox injections, and even traveled to Japan for an experimental surgery to have a metal rod inserted between his vocal cords.

From Slate • Apr. 18, 2026

Still, UMA has been a lightning rod for controversy in previous resolution disputes.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 11, 2026

Her name was Concha and she was kind of this lightning rod.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 5, 2026

Shah Alam, who doesn't speak English, could not understand police commands to drop the curtain rod and he was arrested, Faisal said.

From BBC • Feb. 27, 2026

Using one of the rocks Olaf had left in a pile in the corner, she broke the curtain rod into two pieces.

From "The Bad Beginning" by Lemony Snicket

Related Words

• baton
• cane
• cylinder
• ingot
• shaft
• slab
• stick