[rɒd], (Noun)

Definitions:
- a thin straight bar, especially of wood or metal
(e.g: concrete walls reinforced with steel rods)

- a fishing rod
(e.g: he hooked an enormous fish which almost pulled the rod from out of his hands)


- a pistol or revolver

- 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


Phrases:
- make a rod for one's own back
- rule with a rod of iron
- spare the rod and spoil the child

Origin:
late Old English rodd ‘slender shoot growing on or cut from a tree’, also ‘straight stick or bundle of twigs used to inflict punishment’; probably related to Old Norse rudda ‘club’