pole

noun18

1. •
   a straight bar of wood or sometimes metal, much longer than it is wide, used to hold things up

   • 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." — 2019
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. •
   Either of the two points on the earth's surface around which it rotates; also, similar points on any other rotating object.
6. •
   A point of magnetic focus, especially each of the two opposing such points of a magnet (designated north and south).
7. •
   Either of the states that characterize a bipolar disorder.
8. •
   (figurative) 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.
9. •
   A contact on an electrical device (such as a battery) at which electric current enters or leaves.
10. •
    Ellipsis of pole position.
11. •
    (slang, vulgar) A penis.
12. •
    A fixed point relative to other points or lines.
13. •
    For a meromorphic function f(z), any point a for which f(z)→∞ as z→a.
14. •
    (historical) A unit of length, equal to a rod (¹⁄₄ chain or 5+¹⁄₂ yards).
15. •
    (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.
16. •
    (US, slang) A rifle.
17. •
    (slang) A telescope used to identify birds, aeroplanes or wildlife.
18. •
    (no longer used) The firmament; the sky.

    • And the slope sun his upward beam / Shoots against the dusky pole, — 1634

verb8

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 strike (the ball) very hard.

   • Long had poled the ball into the lower deck in right center. — 2007
3. •
   To furnish with poles for support.

   • to pole beans or hops
4. •
   To convey on poles.
5. •
   To induce piezoelectricity in (a substance) by aligning the dipoles.
6. •
   To treat (copper) by blowing natural gas or other reducing agent through the molten oxide, burning off the oxygen.
7. •
   To stir, as molten glass, with a pole.
8. •
   To identify something quite precisely using a telescope.

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

noun1

1. •
   A person from Poland or of Polish descent.

   • The Poles are well dressed, handsome, and somehow on a larger scale than their surroundings, as if they have grown since the war and Poland itself has not. — 1989