Rod \Rod\, n. [The same word as rood. See Rood.]

1. A straight and slender stick; a wand; hence, any slender bar, as of wood or metal (applied to various purposes). Specifically:
   (a) An instrument of punishment or correction; figuratively, chastisement.

He that spareth his rod hateth his son. --Prov. xiii. 24.
   (b) A kind of sceptor, or badge of office; hence, figuratively, power; authority; tyranny; oppression. ``The rod, and bird of peace.'' --Shak.
   (c) A support for a fishing line; a fish pole. --Gay.
   (d) (Mach. & Structure) A member used in tension, as for sustaining a suspended weight, or in tension and compression, as for transmitting reciprocating motion, etc.; a connecting bar.
   (e) An instrument for measuring.

2. A measure of length containing sixteen and a half feet; -- called also perch, and pole.

Black rod. See in the Vocabulary.

Rods and cones (Anat.), the elongated cells or elements of the sensory layer of the retina, some of which are cylindrical, others somewhat conical.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Pole \Pole\, n. [Cf. G. Pole a Pole, Polen Poland.]

A native or inhabitant of Poland; a Polander.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Pole \Pole\, n. [As. p[=a]l, L. palus, akin to pangere to make fast. Cf. Pale a stake, Pact.]

1. A long, slender piece of wood; a tall, slender piece of timber; the stem of a small tree whose branches have been removed; as, specifically:
   (a) A carriage pole, a wooden bar extending from the front axle of a carriage between the wheel horses, by which the carriage is guided and held back.
   (b) A flag pole, a pole on which a flag is supported.
   (c) A Maypole. See Maypole.
   (d) A barber's pole, a pole painted in stripes, used as a sign by barbers and hairdressers.
   (e) A pole on which climbing beans, hops, or other vines, are trained.

2. A measuring stick; also, a measure of length equal to 5? yards, or a square measure equal to 30? square yards; a rod; a perch. --Bacon.

Pole bean (Bot.), any kind of bean which is customarily trained on poles, as the scarlet runner or the Lima bean.

Pole flounder (Zo["o]l.), a large deep-water flounder (Glyptocephalus cynoglossus), native of the northern coasts of Europe and America, and much esteemed as a food fish; -- called also craig flounder, and pole fluke.

Pole lathe, a simple form of lathe, or a substitute for a lathe, in which the work is turned by means of a cord passing around it, one end being fastened to the treadle, and the other to an elastic pole above.

Pole mast (Naut.), a mast formed from a single piece or from a single tree.

Pole of a lens (Opt.), the point where the principal axis meets the surface.

Pole plate (Arch.), a horizontal timber resting on the tiebeams of a roof and receiving the ends of the rafters. It differs from the plate in not resting on the wall.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Pole \Pole\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Poled; p. pr. & vb. n. Poling.]

1. To furnish with poles for support; as, to pole beans or hops.

2. To convey on poles; as, to pole hay into a barn.

3. To impel by a pole or poles, as a boat.

4. To stir, as molten glass, with a pole.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Pole \Pole\, n. [L. polus, Gr. ? a pivot or hinge on which anything turns, an axis, a pole; akin to ? to move: cf. F. p[^o]le.]

1. Either extremity of an axis of a sphere; especially, one of the extremities of the earth's axis; as, the north pole.

2. (Spherics) A point upon the surface of a sphere equally distant from every part of the circumference of a great circle; or the point in which a diameter of the sphere perpendicular to the plane of such circle meets the surface. Such a point is called the pole of that circle; as, the pole of the horizon; the pole of the ecliptic; the pole of a given meridian.

3. (Physics) One of the opposite or contrasted parts or directions in which a polar force is manifested; a point of maximum intensity of a force which has two such points, or which has polarity; as, the poles of a magnet; the north pole of a needle.

4. The firmament; the sky. [Poetic]

Shoots against the dusky pole. --Milton.

5. (Geom.) See Polarity, and Polar, n.

Magnetic pole. See under Magnetic.

Poles of the earth, or Terrestrial poles (Geog.), the two opposite points on the earth's surface through which its axis passes.

Poles of the heavens, or Celestial poles, the two opposite points in the celestial sphere which coincide with the earth's axis produced, and about which the heavens appear to revolve.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)