Black Rod

See also: Blackrod

English

Noun

Black Rod (plural Black Rods)

1. Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod.
2. An usher in the legislature of British colonies.
   • 1784, William Owen, William Johnston, A new and general biographical dictionary, page 154:

     Soon after, the Scotch commissioners presented also to the upper house the charge against him, tending to prove him an incendiary: he was immediately committed to the custody of the black rod.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “Black Rod”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)