— rodless , adj. — rodlike , adj.
/rod/ , n. , v. , rodded, rodding .
n.
1. a stick, wand, staff, or the like, of wood, metal, or other material.
2. a straight, slender shoot or stem of any woody plant, whether still growing or cut from the plant.
3. See fishing rod .
4. (in plastering or mortaring) a straightedge moved along screeds to even the plaster between them.
5. a stick used for measuring.
6. a unit of linear measure, 5½ yards or 16½ feet (5.029 m); linear perch or pole.
7. a unit of square measure, 30¼ square yards (25.29 sq. m); square perch or pole.
8. a stick, or a bundle of sticks or switches bound together, used as an instrument of punishment.
9. punishment or discipline: Not one to spare the rod, I sent him to bed without dinner.
10. a wand, staff, or scepter carried as a symbol of office, authority, power, etc.
11. authority, sway, or rule, esp. when tyrannical.
12. See lightning rod .
13. a slender bar or tube for draping towels over, suspending a shower curtain, etc.
14. Bible. a branch of a family; tribe.
15. a pattern, drawn on wood in full size, of one section of a piece of furniture.
16. Slang.
a. a pistol or revolver.
b. Vulgar. the penis.
17. Anat. one of the rodlike cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to low intensities of light. Cf. cone (def. 5).
18. Bacteriol. a rod-shaped microorganism.
19. Also called leveling rod, stadia rod . Survey. a light pole, conspicuously marked with graduations, held upright and read through a surveying instrument in leveling or stadia surveying.
20. Metall. round metal stock for drawing and cutting into slender bars.
v.t.
21. to furnish or equip with a rod or rods, esp. lightning rods.
22. to even (plaster or mortar) with a rod.
23. Metall. to reinforce (the core of a mold) with metal rods.
[ bef. 1150; ME rodd, late OE; akin to ON rudda club ]