pole

Meanings

Noun

• Originally, a stick; now specifically, a long and slender piece of metal or (especially) wood, used for various construction or support purposes.
• A type of basic fishing rod.
• A long sports implement used for pole-vaulting; now made of glassfiber or carbon fiber, formerly also metal, bamboo and wood have been used.
• A telescope used to identify birds, aeroplanes or wildlife.
• A unit of length, equal to a rod ( chain or yards).
• Pole position.
• A gun.
• A penis
• Either of the two points on the earth's surface around which it rotates; also, similar points on any other rotating object.
• A point of magnetic focus, especially each of the two opposing such points of a magnet (designated north and south).
• A fixed point relative to other points or lines.
• A contact on an electrical device (such as a battery) at which electric current enters or leaves.
• For a meromorphic function $f(z)$, any point $a$ for which $f(z)\; \backslash rightarrow\; \backslash infty$ as $z\; \backslash rightarrow\; a$.
• The firmament; the sky.
• Either of the states that characterize a bipolar disorder.

Verb

• To propel by pushing with poles, to push with a pole.
• To identify something quite precisely using a telescope.
• To furnish with poles for support.
• To convey on poles.
• To stir, as molten glass, with a pole.
• To strike (the ball) very hard.
• To induce piezoelectricity in (a substance) by aligning the dipoles.

Related

Similar words

• rod

Opposite words

• zero

Origin

• From Middle English pole, pal, from Old English pāl ("a pole, stake, post; a kind of hoe or spade"), from Proto-West Germanic *pāl ("pole"), from Latin pālus ("stake, pale, prop, stay"), perhaps from Old Latin *paxlos, from Proto-Italic *pākslos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- ("to nail, fasten"). peel#Etymology 2, pale#Etymology 2, and palus.
• Cognate with Scots pale, paill, North Frisian pul, pil, Saterland Frisian Pool, West Frisian poal ("pole"), Dutch paal ("pole"), German Pfahl ("pile, stake, post, pole"), Danish pæl ("pole"), Swedish påle ("pole"), Icelandic páll ("hoe, spade, pale"), Old English fæc ("space of time, while, division, interval; lustrum").
• From Middle French pole, pôle, from Latin polus, from Ancient Greek πόλος.