rod

Plural: rods

Noun

• a long thin implement made of metal or wood
• any rod-shaped bacterium
• a linear measure of 16.5 feet
• a square rod of land
• a visual receptor cell that is sensitive to dim light
• a gangster's pistol
• A straight, round stick, shaft, bar, cane, or staff.
• A longitudinal pole used for forming part of a framework such as an awning or tent.
• A long slender usually tapering pole used for angling; fishing rod.
• A stick, pole, or bundle of switches or twigs (such as a birch), used for personal defense or to administer corporal punishment by whipping.
• An implement resembling and/or supplanting a rod (particularly a cane) that is used for corporal punishment, and metonymically called the rod, regardless of its actual shape and composition.
• A stick used to measure distance, by using its established length or task-specific temporary marks along its length, or by dint of specific graduated marks.
• A unit of length equal to 1 pole, a perch, ¹⁄₄ chain, 5+¹⁄₂ yards, 16+¹⁄₂ feet, or exactly 5.0292 meters (these being all equivalent).
• An implement held vertically and viewed through an optical surveying instrument such as a transit, used to measure distance in land surveying and construction layout; an engineer's rod, surveyor's rod, surveying rod, leveling rod, ranging rod. The modern (US) engineer's or surveyor's rod commonly is eight or ten feet long and often designed to extend higher. In former times a surveyor's rod often was a single wooden pole or composed of multiple sectioned and socketed pieces, and besides serving as a sighting target was used to measure distance on the ground horizontally, hence for convenience was of one rod or pole in length, that is, 5+¹⁄₂ yards.
• A unit of area equal to a square rod, 30+¹⁄₄ square yards or ¹⁄₁₆₀ acre.
• A straight bar that unites moving parts of a machine, for holding parts together as a connecting rod or for transferring power as a driveshaft.
• A rod cell: a rod-shaped cell in the eye that is sensitive to light.
• Any of a number of long, slender microorganisms.
• A stirring rod: a glass rod, typically about 6 inches to 1 foot long and ¹⁄₈ to ¹⁄₄ inch in diameter that can be used to stir liquids in flasks or beakers.
• A pistol; a gun.
• The penis.
• A hot rod, an automobile or other passenger motor vehicle modified to run faster and often with exterior cosmetic alterations, especially one based originally on a pre-1940s model or (currently) denoting any older vehicle thus modified.
• A rod-shaped object that appears in photographs or videos traveling at high speed, not seen by the person recording the event, often associated with extraterrestrial entities.
• A Cuisenaire rod.
• A coupling rod or connecting rod, which links the driving wheels of a steam locomotive, and some diesel shunters and early electric locomotives.
• A drain rod, being a set of segmented rods with interlocking connectors designed to remain attached even under rotation in use.

Verb

Verb Forms: rodded, rodding, rods

• To provide or equip something with a rod or rods.
• To reinforce concrete with metal rods.
• To furnish with rods, especially lightning rods.
• To penetrate sexually.
• To hot rod.

Examples

• He applied a gram positive stain, looking for rods indicative of Listeria.
• He needed to ROD his board with more vowels to expand his word options.
• I notched a rod and used it to measure the length of rope to cut.
• The circus strong man proved his strength by bending an iron rod, and then straightening it.
• The engine threw a rod, and then went to pieces before our eyes, springs and coils shooting in all directions.
• The house had a small yard of about six rods in size.
• The judge imposed on the thief a sentence of fifteen strokes with the rod.
• The rods are more sensitive than the cones, but do not discern color.
• When I hooked a snake and not a fish, I got so scared I dropped my rod in the water.

Synonyms

gat, perch, pole, retinal rod, rod cell, skyfish

Related Words

crook

Anagrams of rod