He that spareth his rod hateth his son. --Prov.
xiii. 24.
(b) A kind of sceptor, or badge of office; hence,
figuratively, power; authority; tyranny; oppression.
``The rod, and bird of peace.'' --Shak.
(c) A support for a fishing line; a fish pole. --Gay.
(d) (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.
(e) 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.
2. A measuring stick; also, a measure of length equal to 5?
yards, or a square measure equal to 30? square yards; a
rod; a perch. --Bacon.
{Pole bean} (Bot.), any kind of bean which is customarily
trained on poles, as the scarlet runner or the Lima bean.
{Pole flounder} (Zo["o]l.), a large deep-water flounder
({Glyptocephalus cynoglossus}), native of the northern
coasts of Europe and America, and much esteemed as a food
fish; -- called also {craig flounder}, and {pole fluke}.
{Pole lathe}, a simple form of lathe, or a substitute for a
lathe, in which the work is turned by means of a cord
passing around it, one end being fastened to the treadle,
and the other to an elastic pole above.
{Pole mast} (Naut.), a mast formed from a single piece or
from a single tree.
{Pole of a lens} (Opt.), the point where the principal axis
meets the surface.
{Pole plate} (Arch.), a horizontal timber resting on the
tiebeams of a roof and receiving the ends of the rafters.
It differs from the plate in not resting on the wall.
2. To convey on poles; as, to pole hay into a barn.
3. To impel by a pole or poles, as a boat.
4. To stir, as molten glass, with a pole.
2. (Spherics) A point upon the surface of a sphere equally
distant from every part of the circumference of a great
circle; or the point in which a diameter of the sphere
perpendicular to the plane of such circle meets the
surface. Such a point is called the pole of that circle;
as, the pole of the horizon; the pole of the ecliptic; the
pole of a given meridian.
3. (Physics) One of the opposite or contrasted parts or
directions in which a polar force is manifested; a point
of maximum intensity of a force which has two such points,
or which has polarity; as, the poles of a magnet; the
north pole of a needle.
4. The firmament; the sky. [Poetic]
Shoots against the dusky pole. --Milton.
5. (Geom.) See {Polarity}, and {Polar}, n.
{Magnetic pole}. See under {Magnetic}.
{Poles of the earth}, or {Terrestrial poles} (Geog.), the two
opposite points on the earth's surface through which its
axis passes.
{Poles of the heavens}, or {Celestial poles}, the two
opposite points in the celestial sphere which coincide
with the earth's axis produced, and about which the
heavens appear to revolve.