a long, cylindrical, often slender piece of wood, metal, etc.: a telephone pole; a fishing pole.
Northeastern U.S.a long, tapering piece of wood or other material that extends from the front axle of a vehicle between the animals drawing it.
Nautical.
a light spar.
that part of a mast between the uppermost standing rigging and the truck.
the lane of a racetrack nearest to the infield; the inside lane.Compare post1 (def. 5).
a unit of length equal to 16½ feet (5 meters); a rod.
a square rod, 30¼ square yards (25.3 sq. m).
verb (used with object),poled,pol·ing.
to furnish with poles.
to push, strike, or propel with a pole: to pole a raft.
Baseball. to make (an extra-base hit) by batting the ball hard and far: He poled a triple to deep right-center.
Metallurgy. to stir (molten metal, as copper, tin, or zinc) with poles of green wood so as to produce carbon, which reacts with the oxygen present to effect deoxidation.
verb (used without object),poled,pol·ing.
to propel a boat, raft, etc., with a pole: to pole down the river.
QUIZZES
QUIZ YOURSELF ON “ITS” VS. “IT’S”!
Apostrophes can be tricky; prove you know the difference between it’s and its in this crafty quiz!
Question 1 of 12
On the farm, the feed for chicks is significantly different from the roosters’; ______ not even comparable.
one of two opposite or contrasted principles or tendencies: His behavior ranges between the poles of restraint and abandon.
a point of concentration of interest, attention, etc.: The beautiful actress was the pole of everyone's curiosity.
Electricity, Magnetism. either of the two regions or parts of an electric battery, magnet, or the like, that exhibits electrical or magnetic polarity.
Cell Biology.
either end of an ideal axis in a nucleus, cell, or ovum, about which parts are more or less symmetrically arranged.
either end of a spindle-shaped figure formed in a cell during mitosis.
the place at which a cell extension or process begins, as a nerve cell axon or a flagellum.
Mathematics.
a singular point at which a given function of a complex variable can be expanded in a Laurent series beginning with a specified finite, negative power of the variable.
Jennifer Lopez did play a thieving, revenge-minded stripper who happened to be a pole dancer, but pole dancing is deep, deep, much deeper than anyone in Hollywood is likely to give it credit for.
Indeed, these days Pettit’s job involves finding other engineers like him, assembling the crack teams that place ice-penetrating radar and other equipment at both poles of the Earth.
Most of those efforts focused on the large craters—some as massive as the Grand Canyon—near the lunar poles, which are known to be cold enough to maintain ice.
either of the two regions at the extremities of a magnet to which the lines of force converge or from which they diverge
either of two points or regions in a piece of material, system, etc, at which there are opposite electric charges, as at the two terminals of a battery
mathsan isolated singularity of an analytical function
biology
either end of the axis of a cell, spore, ovum, or similar body
either end of the spindle formed during the metaphase of mitosis and meiosis
physiolthe point on a neuron from which the axon or dendrites project from the cell body
either of two mutually exclusive or opposite actions, opinions, etc
geometrythe origin in a system of polar or spherical coordinates
any fixed point of reference
poles apartorpoles asunderhaving widely divergent opinions, tastes, etc
from pole to polethroughout the entire world
Word Origin for pole
C14: from Latin polus end of an axis, from Greek polos pivot, axis, pole; related to Greek kuklos circle
British Dictionary definitions for pole (3 of 4)
Pole1
/ (pəʊl) /
noun
a native, inhabitant, or citizen of Poland or a speaker of Polish
British Dictionary definitions for pole (4 of 4)
Pole2
/ (pəʊl) /
noun
Reginald. 1500–58, English cardinal; last Roman Catholic archbishop of Canterbury (1556–58)