lightning rod

noun

1. a rodlike conductor installed to divert lightning away from a structure by providing a direct path to the ground.
2. a person or thing that attracts and absorbs powerful and especially negative or hostile feelings, opinions, etc., thereby diverting such feelings from other targets:

   The unpopular supervisor served as a lightning rod for the criticism that should have been aimed at management.

lightning rod

1. A grounded metal rod placed high on a structure to conduct electrical current from a lightning strike directly to the ground, preventing the currents from injuring people or animals or from damaging objects. Lightning rods usually have a sharp, pointed tip, since electric lines of force are more highly concentrated around pointed objects, in this case increasing the attractiveness of the rod compared with other nearby objects.
2. See also Saint Elmo's fire

Word History and Origins

Origin of lightning rod¹

An Americanism dating back to 1780–90

Example Sentences

Controversy followed Reed, often a golf lightning rod nicknamed “Captain America,” after Team USA lost to Europe at Le Golf National in France.

From Washington Post

Ricardo Salles, the Brazilian environment minister who became a lightning rod for anger over deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, resigned Wednesday after allegations he obstructed a federal investigation into illegal logging.

From Time

The board refused to accept its role as the company’s lightning rod by kicking the decision back to Facebook.

From Quartz

The bill has become a lightning rod for Republican opposition, spurring claims that it is a partisan attempt to rewrite federal election laws in Democrats’ favor.

From Washington Post

I don't know why he's singled out, but every time he just ends up being the lightning rod for my brothers' dirty jokes and my dad and uncle's drunken nicknames.

From Washington Post

Second, Michelle served as a lightning rod in the sense of drawing attacks away from other reform groups.

From The Daily Beast

On the top of the obelisk is a 100-ounce aluminum cap, which acts as a lightning rod.

From The Daily Beast

Indeed Taubira, in particular, has been a lightning rod for opposition contempt.

From The Daily Beast

The show delivered on all the spark a lightning rod host like Dunham should give off.

From The Daily Beast

In 1968, Ted Nugent was a lightning rod, a personification of transformational freedom.

From The Daily Beast

There he paused a moment for breath, and then climbed up the lightning-rod, hand over hand, and gained the roof.

From Project Gutenberg

Back along the wall he crawled, and, sliding down the lightning-rod, was once more on the roof of the old hotel.

From Project Gutenberg

Only the clumsy old lightning-rod shrieking in its rusty fixtures when the wind blows.

From Project Gutenberg

A friend of mine in a Southern city tells me of a red-headed woodpecker that drums upon a lightning-rod on his neighbor's house.

From Project Gutenberg

From this observation to the lightning rod was but a short step.

From Project Gutenberg