Green’s Dictionary of Slang

rod n.

1. (also hot rod, flesh-rod, love rod, rod of correction, rod-pole) the penis, the erect penis.

[UK]Lyly Man in the Moone II ii: Away peeuish boy, a rodde were better vnder thy girdle, than loue in thy mouth: it will be a forward Cocke that croweth in the shell.
[UK]Middleton Mad World The Persons: Master Shortrod Harebrain, a jealous husband.
[UK] ‘When Scortching Phoebus’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 40: Tho you be gaudye, & I be baudye / & wand a rodd!
[UK]Mercurius Fumigosus 21 18–25 Oct. 183: A delightfull Mask or Dance is presented between Fatt Fish-wives, and leane Fisher-men, with all their Rodds, Tacklings and Baytes, Madam F--k-at-a-venter being chief Lady of that nights Revells.
[Scot]Order of the Beggar's Benison and Merryland (1892) 29: Dinner Sentiments [...] May we [...] with our magic Rods sound where hidden treasures may be found.
[UK]W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 330/2: I bid them send their Mrs. Briskit, / Just to visit us and frisk it, / As we had a rod in pickling, / To give her fancy such a tickling.
[UK] ‘Mrs. Bond’ Ri-tum Ti-tum Songster 31: I’ve got a rod so long and strong.
[UK] ‘La Rose d’Amour’ in Pearl 8 Feb. 4: With the utmost trouble [I] insert the head of my virgin rod into the entrance of her no less virgin cunt.
[US]Kate Percival Life & Amours I 57: His rod was just entering her sheath.
[UK]Lustful Memoirs of a Young and Passionated Girl 23: The obstruction gave way and his rod was buried in her belly.
[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 15: One day, north of Aden, / He got his hard rod in.
[US] in P. Smith Letter from My Father (1978) 323: Some fellow [...] put in his rod.
[US](con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 202: I bet you were born with a stiff rod.
[UK]Nunnery versus Fuckery 19: He was going to have to stitch his hot rod right into the place that he knew it belonged.
[US]H. Simmons Corner Boy 148: A hard rod ain’t never had no conscience.
[UK]‘Count Palmiro Vicarion’ Limericks 85: As they knelt seeking God / He excited his rod.
[UK](con. 1940s) G. Dutton Andy 53: Think what a dry-arsed bitch she must be to be pounding the mattress with a dead weight like Dumsday. She must have had the knock-back from every randy rod-pole in town.
[US] ‘The Oaks of Jimderia’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 223: God bless this white belly and curly black hair, / The rod of old Jacob may here lose its seed, / But a cunt that lies gaping shall ne’er gape in need.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 36: It seemed that every white man in town was out there, scratch in one hand and rod in the other.
[UK]A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 24: After fingering her for some minutes my flesh-rod went sliding chock-a-block into her.
[US]B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 49: the penis [...] hot rod [...] love rod.
[US]D. Jenkins Life Its Ownself (1985) 122: I inherited the same rod my daddy had. When he died it took seven days to close the casket. That thing stuck straight up.
[US]S. Morgan Homeboy 319: The Divine Rod would revert to its normal usage, the sacred act of pokeration.
[US]K. Jasper ‘Thursday’ in Brooklyn Noir 258: Bending her legs back as far as they can go, aiming a stiff rod towards the uterus.
[UK](con. 1951) A. Wheatle Island Songs (2006) 84: De fact ah de matter is Jacob waan to jiggle an’ wriggle him rod ah correction inside yuh an’ mek ya belly swell.
[US]G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 208: April reached out and grabbed his rod through the crotch of his slacks.
[Aus]N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [ebook] We had more rods out than Lang Park urinals at halftime.

2. (US) a gun, a pistol; also attrib.

[US]‘Number 1500’ Life In Sing Sing 260: His rod to my nut turned me into the Irish Club House.
[US]F.H. Tillotson How I Became a Detective 94: Rads [sic], Gats or Smoke-wagon – A revolver.
[US]J. Lait ‘The Gangster’s Elegy’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 243: Next day the Kid gets hepped to who it was pulled that there rod, an’ of course he sends ’im word that he’ll croak ’im.
[US]G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 230: I met a lean-jawed, weasel-eyed road kid who asked me if I carried a rod.
[US]C.B. Yorke ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘Queen Sue [...] was the toughest mob leader that ever pulled a rod’.
[US]Arizona Dly Star (Tuscon, AZ) 23 July 8/3: ‘Even if your rod work is a wee bit careless I’ve got a swell bim I think you’ll work well with on a big job’.
[US]D. Lamson We Who Are About to Die 199: Dillinger — nuts [...] Smokin’ a rod around all over the country.
[US]I. Shulman Amboy Dukes 59: I stopped carrying my rod yesterday.
[Aus]S.J. Baker in Sun. Herald (Sydney) 8 June 9/4: Other American expressions [...] recorded among our criminals include: [...] ‘mouthpiece’ (a lawyer), ‘rod’ (a revolver).
[US]W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 75: They never used rods. Guns make too much noise.
[US]‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 118: His mitt was rammed into his ‘benny’ pocket, keeping the rod warm and ready.
[US]D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 147: I’ll get myself a rod...I want a fuckin’ gun for this one.
[Can](con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 78: The little guy leveled his rod on us again.
[NZ]D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 34: rod n. Firearm.
[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 155/1: rod n. 1 a firearm.
[UK]M. Pryce Last Tango in Aberystwyth 124: ‘A rod, an iron, a gat . . .’ ‘You mean a gun?’.
[Scot]L. McIlvanney All the Colours 27: Going over on the Stranraer boat with a jangle of rods where his spare wheel should be.

3. (US tramp) usu. in pl., the metalwork – struts, supports etc – found underneath a railroad coach or wagon.

[US]Anaconda Standard (MT) 15 Dec. 10/1: ‘Me’n me pard got over ter Helena on der rods’.
[US]J. London ‘Rods and Gunnels’ in Bookman XV (Aug.) 541–44: By the way, there is but one rod, and it occurs on passenger trains. Idiomatically, it becomes ‘rods.’.
[US]H. Kemp ‘Cashing In’ Cry of Youth 75: No more he’ll stretch across the rods or ride the cramped brake-beam.
[US]P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 61: I’ve bin wandering here and there, on the rods and blinds and in John O’Briens.
[US]Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 160: Rods. – The braces running lengthwise beneath a freight or passenger car, and not found on the more up-to-date rolling stock, their place being taken by a steel beam. By means of a short, cleated board, or in many cases without this ‘ticket,’ it is possible to ride on these rods, the body being supported diagonally across the two rods, the arms and legs hooked around them to prevent the motion of the car from hurling the rider off.
[US]S. Longstreet Decade 317: Well, your snowbird histed out of here. Yeah, he’s on the rods moseying west. Oke. St. Louie. He’s on the cuff.
[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 180/1: Rods. (Chiefly hobo) The undercarriage of railroad cars.
[US]B. Appel Tough Guy [ebook] [A] stinking hobo hardly a year off the rods.

4. (US) a gunman.

[US]C.B. Yorke ‘Mob Murder’ in Gangland Stories Mar. 🌐 One false move out of you and you’ll stop lead. My rods don’t miss!
[US]M. Harris ‘Facing the Mob’ in Gangland Stories Feb. 🌐 What’ll the others say — the rods and broads— if I don’t do something about it?
M. Spillane Kiss Me, Deadly n.p.: Two of the hottest rods in town combing the joints looking for you and you don’t even get bothered enough to stop eating.

5. (US) an automobile.

[US]E. Gilbert Vice Trap 26: ‘What kind of car are you driving?’ ‘The old rod, still.’.
‘Yulesville’ in Bench Racer at r.webring.com 🌐 I saw a slick rod that was making fat tracks, / Souped up by eight ponies, all wearing hat racks.
[US]‘Randy Everhard’ Tattoo of a Naked Lady 211: Through sheer will alone I kept the rod on the right side of the highway.
[Aus]P. Temple Truth 235: Where did the Ford come from, a street rod with genuine plates and a missing owner aged seventy-eight?

6. (N.Z. prison) a makeshift weapon created be removing the cartridge from a pen and replacing it with a naiil.

[NZ]D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 155/1: rod n. 2 a weapon made by taking a felttipped pen with an opaque plastic shaft, removing the ink cartridge and replacing it with a nail.

7. see hot-rod n. (2)

8. see hot-rodder n.

9. see ramrod n. (2)

Pertaining to sex

In compounds

rod-pole (n.)

see sense 1 above.

rod walloper (n.)

(orig. Aus.) a masturbator, lit. or fig.

[Aus]B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 47: If that sheilah asked me to be in it — I reckon I’d rather be a flamin’ rod walloper.
B. Humphries Bazza Pulls It Off n.p.: rod walloper (see under Mrs Palm and her five daughters).[...] sausage grappler. A rod walloper.
[NZ]McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 93/2: rod walloper male masturbator.
[UK]K. Lette Mad Cows 283: ‘A bunch of perfidious Poms or a — ’ ‘— Rod-walloper like you,’ added Maddy sourly.
[NZ]McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

In phrases

get a rod on (v.)

to get an erection.

[US] in T.I. Rubin Sweet Daddy 54: He could only get a rod on and pop if someone was watching him.
[US]L. Bruce Essential Lenny Bruce 282: Whenever I hear the old glutius maximus, it gets me this rod on.
get some rod (v.)

(US campus) of a woman, to have sexual intercourse.

Rev. of ‘Suck that dick till you hiccup’ on AxisShop 🌐 [They] know that if they give oral attention they will get some rod plunging action.
‘Sweet Teen Naked’ at Blond-fucking.com 🌐 Sweet Teen Naked: Getting Some Rod.
rod of correction (n.)

see sense 1 above.

General uses

In compounds

rod man (n.)

1. (US, also rodman) a gunman.

[US]G. Henderson Keys to Crookdom 396: Assaulter. Rough guy, hard bird, rod man, rod toter, gat toter.
[US]J. Wilstach Under Cover Man 92: To meddle with a rodman’s skirt was bad business.
[Aus]Smith’s Wkly (Sydney) 26 Feb. 3/3: Most of the ‘rodmen’ of my time are either dead or doing time .
[US]W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 290: We need a rodman and a boy who can kind of hold these jitterbugs down.
[US]N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 146: His best rod man is buyin’ me a shot every time I stop by.
[US]C. Hamilton Men of the Und. 144: Take a wheelman, put him with a brace of rodmen, provide a lucrative mark.

2. (US tramp, also rodsman, rod rider) a tramp who travels by clinging onto the metalwork beneath a coach or wagon.

[US]W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 343: Rod riders, caboosers, outsiders.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 195: rod man [...] rodsman A tramp who rides the rods of a freight train.

In phrases

hit the rods (v.) (also hop the rods)(US)

1. to ride freight trains as an itinerant worker or tramp.

[US]Salt Lake Herald Republican (UT) 11 Dec. 6/11: Since I was sixteen [...] I have done little but hit the rods, loll in side-door Pullmans.
[US]Tacoma Times (WA) 17 Nov. 1/4: Crouching in the darkness [...] beside the Northern Pacific railroad tracks [...] waiting to ‘hop the brake rods’ of a freight train.
Wide World Mag. 47 222: ‘Want to hit the rods, bo? ’ [...] I informed Whiskers that I had never ‘hit the rods’.
[US]A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Hop the rods, to take a railway ride.
[US]W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 135: He was marooned [...] unless he wanted to hit the rods.

2. to leave, to run off.

[US]W.R. Burnett Little Caesar (1932) 67: If things get hot [...] you all better hit the rods.
pack a rod (v.) [pack v.1 (3)]

(US) to carry a gun.

[US]C.L. Edholm ‘Gorilla Girl’ in Gun Molls Oct. 🌐 You be at Jackson’s drugstore at three tomorrow morning [...] Pack a rod.
[US]D. Runyon ‘Tobias the Terrible’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 115: Tobias cannot pack all these rods.
K. Patchen Sleepers Awake 11: She [...] said who do you carry a gun? Pack a rod, you mean? All right, pack a rod, then.
[US]I. Shulman Good Deeds Must Be Punished 78: Maybe you’re packin’ a rod?
[US]Grandmaster Melle Mel ‘Hustler’s Convention’ 🎵 I partied hard and packed a mean rod.
[UK]N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 137: He’s packin’ a rod.
R. Chasse Land of Giants 76: Peter also differed from a host of his compeers in that he did not pack a rod, a gat, a cannon, a piece [etc].
ride the rods (v.)

see under ride v.

rod up (v.)

1. (US Und.) to arm oneself with a gun.

Mixer & Server 25 70: At present we are located in a hot-bed of unrest [...] but nearly all the citizens are ‘rodded’ up and in case of any trouble will be able to protect themselves.
[US]E. Booth Stealing Through Life 249: I submitted to arrest. ‘You’re lucky you aren’t dead [...] We thought you were rodded up’.
[US]Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
D. Runyon More Than Somewhat n.p.: The gendarmes fan them to see if they have any rods on them, because these gendarmes are always laying for parties such as these hoping to catch them rodded up.
[US]Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
[US]Collier’s 129 54: They’s a hell of a difference, son, between the rap for a plain prowl, and the bundle they whack you with if they slough you rodded up.
(con. 1920s) A. Seager Glass House 57: It is impossible to prove that he ever met a real live gangster in snap-brim hat and double-breasted overcoat, all rodded up with a .45 in a shoulder holster.
R.S. Prather Kill Me Tomorrow [ebook] Use your conk, Scott. If I was on the arm, wouldn’t I be rodded up for you?
(con. 1910s) B. Russell Hardships and Happy Times 93: During the harvest when a lot of Wobs rode the trains with money, we had a Task Force [...] who rode the trains and were rodded up to keep those bulls from shaking them down.

2. (US) to convert a car by giving it a very powerful engine to make it go fast.

Boating July-Aug. 70: This is the Chevy siamese. block, line-bored, honed, cammed, rockered, polished, balanced, and rodded-up.
Desperato posting on ‘mass gain’ at DiscussFitness.com 🌐 Bodybuilding reminds me of rodding up a muscle car. Only takes longer, and it’s cheaper.

SE in slang uses

In phrases

rod in piss (n.) (also lash in pickle, rod in brine, rod in pickle, rods are soaking) [from the toughening of rods by marinating them in urine or lye]

1. a punishment in prospect; also lit. in context of flagellation.

[UK] G. Harvey Trimming of Thomas Nashe D2: Thy wit, thy wit, Tom, hath roddes in pisse for thee.
[UK]Dekker Satiromastix V ii: I haue layde roddes in Pisse and Vinegar for thee.
[UK]J. Mabbe (trans.) Life of Guzman Pt I Bk I 240: Master Nicholao hath rods in pisse for you [...] and methinks that he is and is plotting, how he may be reuenged of thee.
[UK]J. Taylor ‘Taylors Revenge’ in Works (1869) SII 147: And for him I haue worser Rods in pisse.
[UK]Man in the Moon 23-30 Apr. 24: Let [illegible] beware, there are rods in pisse for him.
[UK]C. Cotton Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 130: Therefore I think it not amiss for’s / To launch, for there are Rods in Piss for’s.
[UK]B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Rodds in Pickle, or revenge in Lavender.
[UK]N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus I:7 16: Tho’ Rods you know are soaking for you / I find, says he, it won’t deter you.
[UK] ‘Trip to Dunkirk’ in Harleian Misc. I (1808) 211: We’ve rods here in p-ss that will firk off their tails.
[[UK] in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy III 316: In Stygian Waters steept, / As Birch is soaked first in Piss when Boys are to be whipt].
[UK]Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
[Ire]K. O’Hara Midas II i: Well, master Pol I’ll tickle, For him, at least, I have a rod in pickle.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 181: But what I mostly fear is this, / Some God has steep’d a rod in piss.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Pickle [...] there are rods in brine, or pickle for him, a punishment awaits him, or is prepared for him.
[Ire]J. O’Keeffe Peeping Tom 43: Though you have as Poets see, / Rods in pickle steeping.
[UK]Kentish Gaz. 21 Aug. 1/2: This day is published [...] A Rod in Brine or a Tickler for tom Paine. In answer to his first pamphlet.
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
[UK]J. Thomson An Uncle Too Many II iii: Another scheme of powder puff’s, for the fellow’s very looks confess it; but we’ve a rod in pickle for him yet.
[US]Ely’s Hawk & Buzzard (NY) Aug. 31 n.p.: I have a rod in pickle for some of those pretenders .
[UK]Comic Almanack Dec. 38: Now let not those who’ve ’scaped my blows believe that I am fickle, / For many a ‘Pure’ who looks demure, I’ve put a rod in pickle, And if I’m here another year their backs I’ll smartly tickle.
[US]Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 23 Apr. n.p.: Mark my word for it, I have a rod in pickle for several.
[US]Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 28 May n.p.: Beware old one, there is a lash in pickle for you.
[UK]Swell’s Night Guide 85: An old flagellant [...] for whom she always has a rod in pickle, she is safe to stretch his purse strings, and touch some of his yellow spankers, for which she returns some hearty hand spankers a posteriori.
[US]Bartlett Dict. Americanisms 249: pickle. to have a rod in pickle, or in soak, is to have a flogging prepared for one. The phrase is often used in jest, here as in England.
[UK]Sam Sly 20 Jan. 3/1: SAM advises a noted ugly, double-eyed, shaver and tobacconist, [...] to be careful of his sayings and doings respecting young men visiting his shop, otherwise there is a nice rod in pickle, which will be used to advantage.
[Ind]Delhi Sketch Bk 1 June 72/2: Oh Toby, who first put in pickle, / This rod (if report sayeth true).
[US]Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 23 Aug. n.p.: Look out, Benny! I have a rod in soak for your reverence.
West Middx Advertiser 4 Dec. 3/1: A Rod in Pickle at St Barnabas. A youth [...] appeared with his father [...] to make a charge against his schoolmaster, Mr Thwackem.
[UK]Louth & N. Lincs. Advertiser 24 Sept. 3/2: The Rod in Pickle that Russia Had for Us!
[UK]Sportsman 22 Oct. 2/1: Notes on News [...] Says Burns of a shrewish wife, ‘I’d charm her with the magic of a switch;’ but was ever such a ‘rod in pickle’ administered to the most perverse Katherine?
[UK]Besant & Rice Son of a Vulcan III 304: His dearest Adelaide will be a rod in pickle for Master Jack to the end of his natural days.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 6/4: Taking it all together, this is a very pretty quarrel as it stands, and there is evidently a smart rod in pickle for Mr. Wright on his return from the half-way house on the road to the Soudan.
[US]Dly Teleg. (Monroe, LA) 23 Apr. n.p.: The opposition [...] object to the ascription of such a motive, and are putting ‘a rod in pickle’ for the Missourian.
[Aus]Bird o’ Freedom (Sydney) 21 Mar. 3/3: ‘Here's Coulson got a rod in pickle that is going to upset our pot’.
[UK]Larne Times 25 July 4/7: Both France and Spain they did combine / [...] / They thought to steep a rod in brine / Great Britain to whip completer.
[UK]Sheffield Eve. Teleg. 4 May 5/5: A Rod in Pickle. A Warning for a Bad Boy.
[UK]D. Cotsford Society Snapshots 68: For aught we deem infringement of good taste, / A scene by wanton words and wiles defaced, / We keep a very wholesome rod in pickle.
[US]Goodwin’s Wkly (Salt Lake City, UT) 6 Dec. 10/2: The election of Allison as President of the Senate carries with it a rod in pickle for another [...] one Dr Condon.
[Aus]Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Mar. 5/4: There has been a rod-in-pickle waiting for Nanson’s back [...] and it seems to have fallen with a swish.
[UK]E. Pugh City Of The World 214: Everything has been cut and dried for him, and the worst he has had to fear is a rod in pickle that has only a fleeting flavour, after all.
[US]Day Book (Chicago) 13 Nov. 18/1: ‘I’ve put a rod in pickle for you, Mr Two-faced Jared Pence’.
[UK]Bath Chron. 13 Nov. 22/4: Parents who undermine authority [...] need no patting on the back and are preparing a rod in pickle for themselves later.

2. any agent of revenge or aggression that has been put aside for use at the right time.

[UK]Jack the Giant Queller 24: They have a rod in pickle for correction.

3. in horseracing, a certainty.

[UK]Man about Town 25 Sept. 22/3: Vacuum has been a rod in pickle ever since Epsom Spring Meeting.
[UK]Northampton Mercury 26 July 8/5: Steward’s Cup! — Real good investment. Rod in pickle. Connection think a certainty. For this valuable information, remit 2s. 6d. to [etc.].
[Aus]Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Nov. 1/8: Mike had a rod in pickle for the meet nine months ago, / And he knew that if it started nothing else would have a show.
[UK]Hully Dly Mail 15 Mar. 10/5: Turf Wire for another rod in pickle that Will Win.
[UK]Hull Dly Mail 10 Oct. 6/7: Tomorrow’s racing[...] Firemaster, three starred. Keigor, a rod in pickle.
[Aus]L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 11: What Fred, exulting in the curious jargon of the turf, called the ‘rod in pickle’ or the ‘stone moral.’.