Rod definition
- A fishing rod.
- A piston rod.
- An often expandable horizontal bar, especially of metal, used to suspend household items such as curtains or towels.
- A leveling rod.
- A lightning rod.
- A divining rod.
- A measuring stick.
- One of the horizontal elements in a truss system underneath a rail car, especially a freight car.
An example of a rod is a fishing pole.
Curtain rods, a lightning rod.
The judge imposed on the thief a sentence of fifteen strokes with the rod.
I notched a rod and used it to measure the length of rope to cut.
The engine threw a rod, and then went to pieces before our eyes, springs and coils shooting in all directions.
He applied a gram positive stain, looking for rods indicative of Listeria.
- to steal a ride on a freight train
Other Word Forms
Noun
Idioms and Phrasal Verbs
Origin of rod
- Middle English rodd from Old English
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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From Wiktionary
- Old English *rodd or *rodde (attested in dative plural roddum), of uncertain origin.
From Wiktionary