Wiktionary
n. A tall cylinder, often embedded with climbing spikes above normal reach, made from the trunk of a tree, usually topped by a cross beam, used by a public utility to carry wire, cable or conduit through the air, for the transportation of electricity, cable television, telephone or similar services, in an urban area or over short distances.
Wikipedia
A utility pole is a column or post used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as cable, fibre optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It can be referred to as a transmission pole, telephone pole, telecommunication pole, power pole, hydro pole, telegraph pole, or telegraph post, depending on its application. A stobie pole is a multi-purpose pole made of two steel joists held apart by a slab of concrete in the middle, generally found in South Australia.
Electrical wires and cables are routed overhead on utility poles as an inexpensive way to keep them insulated from the ground and out of the way of people and vehicles. Utility poles can be made of wood, metal, concrete, or composites like fiberglass. They are used for two different types of power lines; subtransmission lines which carry higher voltage power between substations, and distribution lines which distribute lower voltage power to customers.
Utility poles were first used in the mid-19th century with telegraph systems, starting with Samuel Morse who attempted to bury a line between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., but moved it aboveground when this system proved faulty. Today, underground distribution lines are increasingly used as an alternative to utility poles in residential neighborhoods, due to poles' perceived ugliness.
Usage examples of "utility pole".
Seagulls circled overhead, while two ospreys piped at each other in a nest on top of a concrete utility pole.
Through a gouge in that fortress they saw the GC copter settle next to a toppled utility pole.
There was no utility pole near the property, no moonlight, no hazy diffusion of light from the big city in the distance.
A small truck driving through the loading yard took a turn too fast, skidded on the splashing fuel, and slid broadside into a utility pole.
There was enough light from the utility pole for me to make out the gun rack on the back window and the bumper stickers on the tailgate.
He pulled the messy heart-shot biker up against the utility pole where Blancanales had hung, and left the dead man sitting there, still leaking dark fluids.
Both men were perched at the top of the utility pole, ostensibly stringing new power lines to accommodate the experimental transformer.
Somehow the hours passed, and with them the miles of the seldom-traveled road, with never a utility pole in sight, or even a contrail in the sky.
Valentine watched the youth kill a watchful hawk atop an old utility pole.
From his perspective, Packer was a very big and unfriendly tree, a utility pole, some other edifice, maybe a fence.