What is "rod"

Rod \Rod\, n. [The same word as rood. See Rood.]

1. A straight and slender stick; a wand; hence, any slender bar, as of wood or metal (applied to various purposes). Specifically:

   1. An instrument of punishment or correction; figuratively, chastisement.

      He that spareth his rod hateth his son.
      --Prov. xiii. 24.

   2. A kind of sceptor, or badge of office; hence, figuratively, power; authority; tyranny; oppression. ``The rod, and bird of peace.''
      --Shak.

   3. A support for a fishing line; a fish pole.
      --Gay.

   4. (Mach. & Structure) A member used in tension, as for sustaining a suspended weight, or in tension and compression, as for transmitting reciprocating motion, etc.; a connecting bar.

   5. An instrument for measuring.

2. A measure of length containing sixteen and a half feet; -- called also perch, and pole.

   Black rod. See in the Vocabulary.

   Rods and cones (Anat.), the elongated cells or elements of the sensory layer of the retina, some of which are cylindrical, others somewhat conical.

Old English rodd "a rod, pole," which is probably cognate with Old Norse rudda "club," from Proto-Germanic *rudd- "stick, club," from PIE *reudh- "to clear land."\n

\nAs a long, tapering elastic pole for fishing, from mid-15c. Figurative sense of "offshoot" (mid-15c.) led to Biblical meaning "scion, tribe." As an instrument of punishment, attested from mid-12c.; also used figuratively for "any sort of correction or punishment," but the basic notion is of beating someone with a stick.\n

\nAs a unit of measure (5½ yards or 16½ feet, also called perch or pole) first attested mid-15c., from the stick used to measure it off. As a measure of area, "a square perch," from late 15c., the usual measure in brickwork. Meaning "light-sensitive cell in a retina" is from 1866, so-called for its shape. Slang meaning "penis" is recorded from 1902; that of "gun, revolver" is from 1903.

n. 1 A straight, round stick, shaft, bar, cane, or staff. 2 (context fishing English) A long slender usually tapering pole used for angling; fishing rod. 3 A stick, pole, or bundle of switches or twigs (such as a birch), used for personal defense or to administer corporal punishment by whipping. 4 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. 5 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. 6 (senseid en sixteenhalffeet)(context archaic English) A unit of length equal to 1 pole, a perch, ¼ chain, 5½ yards, 16½ foot, or exactly 5.0292 meters (these being all equivalent). 7 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 (context US English) 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, 5½ yards. 8 (context archaic English) A unit of area equal to a square rod, 30¼ square yards or 1/160 acre. 9 A straight bar that unites moving parts of a machine, for holding parts together as a connecting rod or for transferring power as a drive-shaft. 10 (context anatomy English) Short for rod cell, a rod-shaped cell in the eye that is sensitive to light. 11 (context biology English) Any of a number of long, slender microorganisms. 12 (context chemistry English) '''A stirring rod''': a glass rod, typically about 6 inches to 1 foot long and 1/8 to 1/4 inch in diameter that can be used to stir liquids in flasks or beakers. 13 (context slang English) A pistol; a gun. 14 (context slang English) A penis. 15 (context slang English) A hot rod, an automobile or other passenger motor vehicle modified to run faster and often with exterior cosmetic alterations, especially one based originally on a pre-1940s model or (currently) denoting any older vehicle thus modified. 16 (context ufology English) rod-shaped objects which appear in photographs and videos traveling at high speed, not seen by the person recording the event, often associated with extraterrestrial entities. 17 (context mathematics English) A (w Cuisenaire rods Cuisenaire rod). vb. (cx slang vulgar transitive English) To penetrate sexually.

1. n. a linear measure of 16.5 feet [syn: perch, pole]

2. a long thin implement made of metal or wood

3. any rod-shaped bacterium

4. a square rod of land [syn: perch, pole]

5. visual receptor cell sensitive to dim light [syn: rod cell, retinal rod]

6. a gangster's pistol [syn: gat]

Rod or Rød is the surname of the following people

• Edouard Rod (1857–1910), French-Swiss novelist
• Johnny Rod (born 1957), American bass guitar player

"Rods" (sometimes known as "skyfish", "air rods", or "solar entities") is a term used in cryptozoology, ufology, and outdoor photography to refer to elongated artifacts in the form of light-rods produced by cameras. Videos of rod-shaped objects moving quickly through the air were claimed by some ufologists and cryptozoologists to be alien life forms, "extradimensional" creatures, or very small UFOs. Subsequent experiments showed that these rods appear in film because of an optical illusion/collusion (especially in interlaced video recording), and are typically traces of a flying insect's wingbeats.

Röd ( Swedish for "Red") is the eighth studio album by Swedish alternative rock band Kent. It was released as digital download exclusively through the band's website on November 5, 2009, and physically on November 6, 2009. The first single from the album, " Töntarna", was released as digital download on October 5, 2009.

Lead singer Joakim Berg announced on Kent's forum on April 21, 2009, that the band had started writing songs for the album in 2008 until the beginning of April 2009 and subsequently the band had begun the recording of the album. The album is produced by Kent and Joshua, who also produced the band's previous studio album.

Röd is available in a standard edition and a deluxe edition box. The deluxe edition box version features the 11-track CD, a USB flash drive with high quality MP3 files as well as AIFF files, three 10" records which between them contain the whole album, and a 118-page book containing lyrics, abstract pictures and photographs. Due to distribution issues the deluxe edition was delayed until November 11, 2009.

The rod or perch or pole is a surveyors tool and unit of length equal to yards, 16 feet, of a statute mile or one-fourth of a surveyor's chain and 5.0292 meters. The rod is useful as a unit of length because whole number multiples of it can equal one acre of square measure. The 'perfect acre' is a rectangular area of 43,560 square feet, bounded by sides 660 feet by 66 feet long (660 ft long × 66 ft wide), or 220 yards by 22 yards long (220 yd/ long × 22 yd wide), or 40 rods by 4 rods long. Thus, an acre is 160 square rods. Since the adoption of the international yard on 1 July 1959, the rod has been equal to exactly 5.0292 meters.

A rod is the same length as a perch, also sometimes called a pole which measure using cordage or wood, slightly antedated the use of both rods and surveyors chains, made of more dimensionally regular materials. Its name derives from the Ancient Roman unit, the pertica. The measure also has a relationship to the military pike of about the same size and both measures date from the sixteenth century, when that weapon was still utilized in national armies. The tool, normally configured as a metal rod with eye-ends (loops that could be hooked together), was used commonly until quite recently, when it was supplanted by electronic tools such as surveyor lasers ( Lidar) and optical target devices for surveying lands. Surveyors rods and chains are still utilized in rough terrains with heavy overgrowth where laser or other optical measurements are difficult or impossible. In old English, the term lug is also used.

Rod ( Slovenian: Rod, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Russian, Serbian: Род, Ukrainian: Рід, Croatian: Rod) is a Slavic deity, often mentioned in the Old Church Slavonic didactic literature which was directed against pagans. Rod is usually accompanied by Rozhanitsy (singular rozhanitsa), female deities or demigodesses who are his companions. The name "Rod", as well as the word "rozhanitsa", is derived from the Common Slavonic root meaning "birth", "origin", "kin" (compare Greek genesis and its cognates, such as genealogy). In modern Russian, the word "rod" means "kin", and "rozhenitsa" is "a woman in childbirth".

As there are very few written sources concerning pre-Christian Slavic beliefs, details of the cult of Rod are still unclear. He is definitely connected with childbirth in some way; anti-Pagan didactic text often mention "Rozhanitsy meal" that was held the day after Christmas (later Babinden), when midwives and mothers were honoured. Boris Rybakov believed Rod was the supreme deity in the Slavic pantheon, the creator of all life. Rybakov's conception was criticized by many scholars, including Leo Klejn and Nikolai Zubov. Klejn states Rod was rather a demigod, a personification of fate. Rozhanitsy, then, were similar to Parcae or even fairy godmothers in European fairytales, who visit newborns and foretell their future. In some South Slavic traditions rozhanitsy are known as " sudenitsy" (singular sudenitsa, lit. "she who judges"). Very similar to them are Dolya and Nedolya, or Srecha and Nesrecha, personifications of good and bad luck. Viljo Johannes Mansikka noted that in Slavic countries such Greek terms as τύχη (luck) and είμαρμένη (destiny) were sometimes translated as "rod" and "rozhenitsy". Jan Máchal believed that rozhanitsy were spirits of female ancestors who patronized the women of the kin (with Rod being the personification of the kin) and defined the destiny of their newborns.

In Vladimir Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language Rod is referred to as a domovoi, a household spirit, associated with veneration of the ancestors and family cults.

In Neopagan traditions, Rod is often considered to be the supreme god and the creator of all life and existence.

Rod is a blue Anything Muppet character from the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Avenue Q. He was originally played on Broadway by John Tartaglia and then Barrett Foa, and on the West End of London by Jon Robyns. On Broadway, Foa was replaced in 2006 by Howie Michael Smith. Jonathan Root alternated with Tartaglia in the Las Vegas production of the show, and was the understudy for Smith on Broadway until June 18, 2009, when Seth Rettberg (from the first national U.S. tour) took over. Daniel Boys replaced Robyns on the West End in 2007. On tour in the UK the role has been played Adam Pettigrew (2011) and Sam Lupton (2012). On the first national U.S. tour, he was played by Robert McClure, who was later replaced by Seth Rettberg (McClure's understudy during the tour).

Rod is an extremely well-groomed, obsessively clean, and slightly hysterical closeted homosexual. He is secretly in love with his former college roommate and best friend, Nicky, and is an investment banker (in the show, he reveals that he works on Wall Street). He is also a conservative Republican. He is very uptight (Nicky complains about him "ironing his underwear" in "It Sucks to Be Me"). Rod and Nicky are parodies of Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street. In one of the musical's most popular songs, "If You Were Gay", Nicky, who is straight, encourages him to come out of the closet.

The musical indicates many times that Rod is gay before he comes out, including one of the numbers, "Fantasies Come True," in which we find out he is in love with Nicky, and the scene at Brian and Christmas Eve's wedding, in which Nicky admits he thinks Rod is a closeted homosexual. This causes one of Rod's denial streaks, trying to prove he isn't a "closeted homo-whatever" by talking about his imaginary girlfriend, Alberta, who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada ("My Girlfriend Who Lives in Canada"). After this, he evicts Nicky from the apartment they share. However, at the end of the show, he comes out of the closet and wants Nicky to move back in with him. Nicky had found him a hunky, muscle-bound boyfriend named Ricky, who looks exactly like Nicky.

In 2004, Rod and puppeteer John Tartaglia appeared on the syndicated game show Hollywood Squares. On the afternoon before one of the 2004 U.S. presidential debates, Rod (played by Tartaglia) moderated a mock debate in Times Square between puppet versions of George W. Bush and John Kerry (played by fellow Avenue Q puppeteers Rick Lyon and Jennifer Barnhart).

Whitney Matheson of USA Today described Rod as "New York's most famous (and perhaps only) gay Republican puppet."

Unlike the fat blue Anything muppet patterns on Sesame Street, this puppet has a face that resembles in shape to the heads of the Orange-gold patterns.

Rod is a common abbreviation ( hypocorism) of various masculine given names, including Rodney, Roderick and Rodion. It may refer to:

• Roderick Rod Allen (born 1959), American sports analyst and former baseball player
• Roderick Rod Allen (advertising executive) (1929-2007), nicknamed the "jingle king"
• Rod Blagojevich (born 1956), American politician
• Lelton Gerard Rod Brown (born 1978), American basketball player
• Rod Brown (gridiron football) (born 1963), American former football player
• Rod Cameron (actor) (1910-1983), Canadian film and television actor born Nathan Roderick Cox
• Roderick Rod Cameron (footballer) (born 1939), English former footballer
• Rollin Rod Daniel (born 1942), American film director
• Rod Davies (1930–2015), British astronomer
• Rod Davis (gridiron football) (born 1981), American National Football League and Canadian Football League linebacker
• Rod Davis (sailor) (born 1955), American-born Olympic sailor who competed for the United States and New Zealand
• Rod Davis (Quarrymen), member of the British skiffle and rock 'n' roll group The Quarrymen
• Rodion Rod Dyachenko (born 1983), Russian association football player
• Rod Fergusson (born 1968), Canadian video game producer
• Rod Hardy, Australian television and film director
• Rod Hay (born 1947), English-born filmmaker
• Rodney Rod Johnson (footballer) (born 1945), English retired football player
• Rod Johnson (programmer), founder of the Spring Framework, an open source application framework for Java
• Rod Jones (disambiguation)
• Roderick Rod Macqueen (born 1949), Australian former rugby union coach
• Roderick Rod Manuel (born 1974), American football player
• Roderick Rod Robinson (born 1976), professional football player
• Rod Smith (disambiguation)
• Rodney Rod Steiger (1925–2002), American actor
• Roderick Rod Stewart (born 1945), British rock musician
• Rodman Rod Serling, American screenwriter, playwright, television producer and narrator best known for the series The Twilight Zone
• Rodney Rod Thorn (born 1941), American basketball executive and former National Basketball Association player and coach
• Roderick Rod Tolbert (born 1967), American former sprinter