pole1
n.
- a long, slender piece of wood or metal, typically used as a support.
▸a wooden shaft fitted to the front of a cart or carriage drawn by animals and attached to their yokes or collars.
▸a simple fishing rod.
- a young tree with a straight slender trunk and no lower branches.
- historical, chiefly Brit. another term for perch3 (in sense 1).
▸
(also square pole)
another term for perch3 (in sense 2).
v.
propel (a boat) with a pole.
Phrase
- under bare poles
Sailing with no sail set. - up the pole
informal - Brit. mad.
- chiefly Irish pregnant.
Etymology
OE pāl, of Gmc origin, based on L. palus ‘stake’.
pole2
n.
- either of the two locations (North Pole or South Pole) on the earth which are the ends of the axis of rotation.
- each of two opposed or contradictory principles or ideas.
- Geometry each of the two points at which the axis of a circle cuts the surface of a sphere.
▸a fixed point to which other points or lines are referred, e.g. the origin of polar coordinates.
- each of the two opposite points of a magnet at which magnetic forces are strongest.
▸each of two terminals (positive and negative) of an electric cell, battery, or machine.
- Biology an extremity of the main axis of a cell, organ, or part.
Phrase
- be poles apart
have nothing in common.
Derivative
- poleward adj.
- polewards adj. & adv.
Etymology
ME: from L. polus, from Gk polos ‘pivot, axis, sky’.