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’.