rod

noun

• 1a thin straight bar, especially of wood or metal: concrete walls reinforced with steel rods a curtain rod
• a wand or staff as a symbol of office, authority, or power: the royal insignia included the ring, the sceptre, and the rod
• a slender straight stick or shoot growing on or cut from a tree or bush: the roof is formed of willow and hazel rods woven between willow rafters
• a stick used for caning or flogging: he swung the rod again in a threatening arc
• (the rod) the use of a stick as punishment:if you’d been my daughter, you’d have felt the rod
• vulgar slang a man’s penis.

• 2a fishing rod: he hooked an enormous fish which almost pulled the rod from out of his hands the largest carp ever caught on rod and line in Britain
• an angler: over a hundred rods turned out for the day, including some famous names

• 3 historical, chiefly Britishanother term for perch³ (sense 1).
• (also square rod)another term for perch³ (sense 2).

• 4US informal a pistol or revolver.

• 5 Anatomy a light-sensitive cell of one of the two types present in large numbers in the retina of the eye, responsible mainly for monochrome vision in poor light. Compare with cone (sense 3 of the noun).