rod

UK: /ˈrɒd/ US: /rɑd/ ,(rod)

Inflections of 'rod' (v): (⇒ conjugate)

rods

v 3rd person singular

rodding

v pres p

rodded

v past

rodded

v past p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

rod /rɑd/   n. [countable]

1. a long straight stick, wand, or staff.
2. a slender bar or tube for draping towels over, etc.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

rod  (rod), n., v., rod•ded, rod•ding. 
n. 

1. a stick, wand, staff, or the like, of wood, metal, or other material.
2. Botany a straight, slender shoot or stem of any woody plant, whether still growing or cut from the plant.
3. See fishing rod. 
4. Building (in plastering or mortaring) a straightedge moved along screeds to even the plaster between them.
5. Weights and Measures a stick used for measuring.
6. Weights and Measures a unit of linear measure, 51⁄2 yards or 161⁄2 feet (5.029 m);
   linear perch or pole.
7. Weights and Measures a unit of square measure, 301⁄4 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. Building 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. Furniture a pattern, drawn on wood in full size, of one section of a piece of furniture.
16. Slang Terms
    • a pistol or revolver.
    • [Vulgar.] the penis.
17. Anatomy one of the rodlike cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to low intensities of light. Cf. cone (def. 5).
18. Microbiology [Bacteriol.] a rod-shaped microorganism.
19. Surveying Also called leveling rod, stadia rod. a light pole, conspicuously marked with graduations, held upright and read through a surveying instrument in leveling or stadia surveying.
20. Metallurgy round metal stock for drawing and cutting into slender bars.

v.t. 
21. Building to furnish or equip with a rod or rods, esp. lightning rods.
22. Building to even (plaster or mortar) with a rod.
23. Metallurgy to reinforce (the core of a mold) with metal rods.
• bef. 1150; Middle English rodd, late Old English; akin to Old Norse rudda club
rod′less, adj. 
rod′like′, adj. 

Rod  (rod), n. 

1. a male given name, form of Roderick or Rodney. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

rod / rɒd/ noun

1. a slim cylinder of metal, wood, etc; stick or shaft
2. a switch or bundle of switches used to administer corporal punishment
3. any of various staffs of insignia or office
4. power, esp of a tyrannical kind: a dictator's iron rod
5. a straight slender shoot, stem, or cane of a woody plant
6. See fishing rod
7. Also called: pole, perch a unit of length equal to 5 yards
8. a unit of square measure equal to 30 square yards
9. a metal shaft that transmits power in axial reciprocating motion
   Compare shaft5
10. another name (esp US) for staff18
11. Also called: retinal rod any of the elongated cylindrical cells in the retina of the eye, containing the visual purple (rhodopsin), which are sensitive to dim light but not to colour
    Compare cone5
12. any rod-shaped bacterium
13. a vulgar slang word for penis
14. 
    slang name for pistol1
15. short for hotrod

Etymology: Old English rodd; related to Old Norse rudda club, Norwegian rudda, rydda twig

ˈrodˌlike adjective