“rods” is a form of
rod
UK /ɹɒd/ · US /ɹɑd/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms rods rodding rodded
- 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.”
- noun A longitudinal pole used for forming part of a framework such as an awning or tent.
- noun (fishing) 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.”
- 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.
- 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.”
- 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.”
- noun (archaic) 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).
- noun 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.
- verb (construction) To reinforce concrete with metal rods.
- verb (transitive) To furnish with rods, especially lightning rods.
- verb (slang, vulgar, transitive) To penetrate sexually.
- verb (slang) To hot rod.
- proper noun A nickname for the male given names Rodney and Roderick.
- proper noun The god of the family, ancestors and fate in Slavic mythology.
Synonyms
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”).
Abbreviated form of Rodney and of Roderick, both with roots originating from Germanic *hrōþiz (“fame”).
Ultimately from Proto-Slavic *rȍdъ.
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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.
- noun A measure of length containing sixteen and a half feet; --called also perch, and pole. Black rod. See in the Vocabulary.
Etymology [The same word as rood. See Rood.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rod”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details