flagpole
Americannoun
noun
-
a pole or staff on which a flag is hoisted and displayed
-
to pursue a tentative course of action in order to gauge the reaction it receives
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of flagpole
Explanation
A flagpole is a long bar that holds a cloth banner representing a country, state, school, or team. If you want to fly the Stars and Stripes on the Fourth of July, you'll need a flagpole! The word flagpole is pretty straightforward; it's a pole that supports a flag at the end of it. The flagpole on your grandparents' front porch might be five feet long and made of wood, while the aluminum flagpole in front of your school could be 30 feet tall. Before the Great Depression in the 1920s, flagpole-sitting (climbing to the top of a flagpole and staying there as long as possible) briefly became a popular fad.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And Trump has feuded with the agency over, among other things, a 70-foot-tall flagpole erected on his Rancho Palos Verdes golf course without a permit.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 11, 2026
Grounded by a barren tree serving as a flagpole, the standard flies over a war-torn landscape.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 20, 2026
This consolidation developed after the stock broke above a bull flag pivot near $20 in March 2024, with the original flagpole rally beginning at the very round $10 level:
From Barron's • May 20, 2026
The 10-year chart shows the flagpole being about 4.5 percentage points in height.
From MarketWatch • May 19, 2026
She turned right, drove past the parade grounds with its flagpole, and parked her car near a massive, almost windowless building made of concrete and yellow bricks that covered almost ten acres of ground.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
