rod

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A straight, round stick, shaft, bar, cane, or staff.

   The circus strong man proved his strength by bending an iron rod, and then straightening it.

2. 2
   noun

   A long slender usually tapering pole used for angling; fishing rod.

   When I hooked a snake and not a fish, I got so scared I dropped my rod in the water.

3. 3
   noun

   A stick, pole, or bundle of switches or twigs (such as a birch), used for personal defense or to administer corporal punishment by whipping.

   So was I brought up: they tell mee, that in all my youth, I never felt rod [translating verges] but twice, and that very lightly.

4. 4
   noun

   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.

   The judge imposed on the thief a sentence of fifteen strokes with the rod.

5. 5
   noun

   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.

   I notched a rod and used it to measure the length of rope to cut.

6. 6
   noun

   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).

   ‘And this thicket, so full of a natural art, was in the immediate vicinity, within a few rods, of the dwelling of Madame Deluc, whose boys were in the habit of closely examining the shrubberies about them in search of the bark of the sassafras.’

7. 7
   noun

   A unit of area equal to a square rod, 30+¹⁄₄ square yards or ¹⁄₁₆₀ acre.

   The house had a small yard of about six rods in size.

8. 8
   noun

   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.

   The engine threw a rod, and then went to pieces before our eyes, springs and coils shooting in all directions.

Etymology

From Middle English rodde, from Old English *rodd or *rodde (attested in dative plural roddum (“rod, pole”)), of uncertain origin, but probably from Proto-Germanic *rudd- (“stick, club”), from Proto-Indo-European *rewdʰ- (“to clear land”). Compare Old Norse rudda (“club”). For the root, compare English rid. Presumably unrelated to Proto-Germanic *rōdō (“rod, pole”).