leveling rod
Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Financial, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
lev·el·ing rod
(lĕv′ə-lĭng)n.
A graduated pole or stick with a movable marker, used with a surveyor's level to measure differences in elevation. Also called leveling pole, leveling staff.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
rod
(rɒd)n.
1. a stick, wand, staff, or the like, of wood, metal, or other material.
2. a straight, slender shoot or stem of any woody plant, whether still growing or cut from the plant.
3. a slender bar or tube for draping towels over, suspending curtains, etc.
4.
a. a stick used for measuring.
b. a unit of linear measure, 5½ yards or 16½ feet (5.03 m); pole.
c. a unit of square measure, 30¼ square yards (25.3 sq m); rood.
5. a stick, or a bundle of sticks or switches bound together, used as an instrument of punishment.
6. punishment or discipline.
7. a staff or scepter carried as a symbol of office, authority, etc.
8. authority, sway, or rule, esp. when tyrannical.
9. fishing rod.
10. lightning rod.
11. one of the rodlike cells in the retina of the eye, sensitive to low intensities of light. Compare cone (def. 5).
12. (in plastering or mortaring) a straightedge moved along screeds to even the plaster between them.
13. Bible. a branch of a family; tribe. Ps. 74:2; Jer. 10:16.
14. Slang. a pistol or revolver.
15. a collapsible pole, conspicuously marked with graduations, held upright so that it can be read at a distance by a surveyor.
[before 1150; rodd, late Old English; akin to Old Norse rudda club]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.