a stick, wand, staff, or the like, of wood, metal, or other material.

a straight, slender shoot or stem of any woody plant, whether still growing or cut from the plant.

fishing rod.

(in plastering or mortaring) a straightedge moved along screeds to even the plaster between them.

a stick used for measuring.

a unit of linear measure, 5 1 / 2 yards or 16 1 / 2 feet (5.029 m); linear perch or pole.

a unit of square measure, 30 1 / 4 square yards (25.29 sq. m); square perch or pole.

a stick, or a bundle of sticks or switches bound together, used as an instrument of punishment.

punishment or discipline

Not one to spare the rod, I sent him to bed without dinner.

a wand, staff, or scepter carried as a symbol of office, authority, power, etc.

authority, sway, or rule, esp. when tyrannical.

lightning rod.

a slender bar or tube for draping towels over, suspending a shower curtain, etc.

Bible . a branch of a family; tribe.

a pattern, drawn on wood in full size, of one section of a piece of furniture.

Slang .

a pistol or revolver.

Vulgar . the penis.

Anatomy . one of the rodlike cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to low intensities of light. Compare cone ( def. 5 ) .

Bacteriology . a rod-shaped microorganism.

Also called leveling rod , stadia rod. Surveying . a light pole, conspicuously marked with graduations, held upright and read through a surveying instrument in leveling or stadia surveying.

Metallurgy . round metal stock for drawing and cutting into slender bars.

to furnish or equip with a rod or rods, esp. lightning rods.

to even (plaster or mortar) with a rod.

Metallurgy . to reinforce (the core of a mold) with metal rods.

noun

baton , billet , birch , cane , cylinder , dowel , ingot , mace , pin , rodule , scepter , sceptre , shaft , slab , spike , staff , stave , stick , strip , switch , wand , bar , bloom , 16-1/2 feet , axle , bamboo , bolt , crowbar , fasces , perch , pole , scion , skewer , spindle , spoke , support , toggle , twig , whip