Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A pole on which a flag is raised.
  • idiom (run (something) up the flagpole) To test (a plan, suggestion, draft, or idea) and then measure the response to it.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as flagstaff.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A pole used to display a flag.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A tall pole up which one or more flags may be raised and flown.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun surveying instrument consisting of a straight rod painted in bands of alternate red and white each one foot wide; used for sightings by surveyors
  • noun a tall staff or pole on which a flag is raised

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

flag +‎ pole

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Examples

  • The message of the pledge and the flagpole is that this is a nation that we live in and whose values we cherish.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Disagreement Need Not Equal Discourtesy 2010

  • When the best thing you can find to run up the flagpole is something pointedly unimpressive, what you’re better off running up the flagpole is nothing atall.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » The Rhetoric of Opposition 2010

  • When the best thing you can find to run up the flagpole is something pointedly unimpressive, what you’re better off running up the flagpole is nothing atall.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » The Rhetoric of Opposition 2010

  • Just behind the hedges in the middle of the picture by the flagpole are a couple walls with the remains of gravestones of soldiers from almost 200 years ago.

    Walk to Coronation Park Teena in Toronto 2007

  • Just behind the hedges in the middle of the picture by the flagpole are a couple walls with the remains of gravestones of soldiers from almost 200 years ago.

    Archive 2007-07-01 Teena in Toronto 2007

  • And if you look very carefully, you will see on top of the flagpole is a cap of liberty.

    The Story of American Freedom 1998

  • That comes only weeks after the unveiling of the world's tallest flagpole, which is estimated to have cost more than $3.5 million to create.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

  • That comes only weeks after the unveiling of the world's tallest flagpole, which is estimated to have cost more than $3.5 million to create.

    KansasCity.com: Front Page 2011

  • Ravenna Township Trustee Patsy Artz says both were lucky to survive and calls the flagpole "an accident waiting to happen."

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2011

  • The flagpole was a gift to New York from the Netherlands in

    theleafchronicle.com - Local News 2009

Comments

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  • The object around which the monkey wrapped his tail.

    September 10, 2007