Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rood

Rood (ro͞od), n. [AS. rōd a cross; akin to OS. rōda, D. roede rod, G. ruthe, rute, OHG. ruota. Cf. Rod a measure.] 1. A representation in sculpture or in painting of the cross with Christ hanging on it.

☞ Generally, the Trinity is represented, the Father as an elderly man fully clothed, with a nimbus around his head, and holding the cross on which the Son is represented as crucified, the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove near the Son's head. Figures of the Virgin Mary and of St. John are often placed near the principal figures.

Savior, in thine image seen Bleeding on that precious rood. Wordsworth.

2. A measure of five and a half yards in length; a rod; a perch; a pole. [Prov. Eng.]

3. The fourth part of an acre, or forty square rods.

By the rood, by the cross; — a phrase formerly used in swearing. "No, by the rood, not so." Shak. — Rood beam (Arch.), a beam across the chancel of a church, supporting the rood. — Rood loft (Arch.), a loft or gallery, in a church, on which the rood and its appendages were set up to view. Gwilt. — Rood screen (Arch.), a screen, between the choir and the body of the church, over which the rood was placed. Fairholt. — Rood tower (Arch.), a tower at the intersection of the nave and transept of a church; — when crowned with a spire it was called also rood steeple. Weale. — Rood tree, the cross. [Obs.] "Died upon the rood tree." Gower.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.