pole

noun

1. Originally, a stick; now specifically, a long and slender piece of metal or (especially) wood, used for various construction or support purposes.

   “For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.”

   “There she was, walking around with an IV pole, and we were only told that "Mommy isn't feeling so well, so she has to be connected to a special soda."”

2. A construction by which an animal is harnessed to a carriage.
3. A type of basic fishing rod.
4. A long sports implement used for pole-vaulting; now made of glassfiber or carbon fiber, formerly also metal, bamboo and wood have been used.
5. (slang)A telescope used to identify birds, aeroplanes or wildlife.
6. (historical)A unit of length, equal to a rod (¹⁄₄ chain or 5+¹⁄₂ yards).
7. A pole position.
8. (US, slang)A rifle.
9. (slang, vulgar)A penis.
10. (slang)A wicket, especially in the context of the number of wickets taken by a particular bowler.

    “Only three cricketers have taken all 10 poles in a Test innings.”

11. Either of the two points on the earth's surface around which it rotates; also, similar points on any other rotating object.
12. A point of magnetic focus, especially each of the two opposing such points of a magnet (designated north and south).
13. (broadly, figuratively)Any of a small set of extremes; especially, either of two extremes that are possible or available.

    “In discussing alternatives to the polar extremes, Professor Nguyen mentioned two poles of a filthy floor versus a sterile surgical site.”

    “Genuine music is the offspring of profound emotion: of exaltation, pain, or joy. Music produced outside of a situation between these poles of the human heart is of banal character, bloodless, watery.”

14. A fixed point relative to other points or lines.
15. A contact on an electrical device (such as a battery) at which electric current enters or leaves.
16. For a meromorphic function f(z), any point a for which f(z)→∞ as z→a.

    “The function f(z)#61;#92;frac#123;1#125;#123;z-3#125; has a single pole at z#61;3.”

17. (obsolete)The firmament; the sky.

    “And the slope sun his upward beam / Shoots against the dusky pole,”

18. Either of the states that characterize a bipolar disorder.
19. A person from Poland or of Polish descent.

verb

1. To propel by pushing with poles, to push with a pole.

   “Huck Finn poled that raft southward down the Mississippi because going northward against the current was too much work.”

2. To identify something quite precisely using a telescope.

   “He poled off the serial of the Gulfstream to confirm its identity.”

3. (transitive)To furnish with poles for support.

   “to pole beans or hops”

4. (transitive)To convey on poles.

   “to pole hay into a barn”

5. (transitive)To stir, as molten glass, with a pole.
6. (transitive)To strike (the ball) very hard.

   “Long had poled the ball into the lower deck in right center.”

7. (transitive)To treat (copper) by blowing natural gas or other reducing agent through the molten oxide, burning off the oxygen.

   “to pole copper”

8. (transitive)To induce piezoelectricity in (a substance) by aligning the dipoles.

name

1. A surname.