The term Jacob's staff is used to refer to several things, also known as cross-staff, a ballastella, a fore-staff, a ballestilla, or a balestilha. In its most basic form, a Jacob's staff is a stick or pole with length markings; most staffs are much more complicated than that, and usually contain a number of measurement and stabilization features. The two most frequent uses are:

• in astronomy and navigation for a simple device to measure angles, later replaced by the more precise sextants;
• in surveying (and scientific fields that use surveying techniques, such as geology and ecology) for a vertical rod that penetrates or sits on the ground and supports a compass or other instrument.

The simplest use of a Jacob's staff is to make qualitative judgements of the height and angle of an object relative to the user of the staff.