• (British) IPA: /bɒl/
• (America) IPA: /boʊl/

boll (plural bolls)

1. The rounded#Adjective|rounded seed#Noun|seed-bear#Verb|bearing capsule of a cotton or flax plant#Noun|plant.
   • 1853, Solomon Northup, chapter XII, in [David Wilson], editor, Twelve Years a Slave. Narrative of Solomon Northrup, a Citizen of New-York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853, from a Cotton Plantation near the Red River, in Louisiana, London: Sampson Low, Son & Co.; Auburn, N.Y.: Derby and Miller, OCLC 14877269 ↗, page 167 ↗:

     Sometimes the slave picks down one side of a row, and back upon the other, but more usually, there is one on either side, gathering all that has blossomed, leaving the unopened bolls for a succeeding picking.

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 1, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, 1971, page 6:

     The champion picker of the day before was the hero of the dawn. If he prophesied that the cotton in today’s field was going to be sparse and stick to the bolls like glue, every listener would grunt a hearty agreement.

2. (Scotland) An old dry measure equal#Adjective|equal to six bushels.

• Italian: capsula
• Russian: семенна́я коро́бочка
• Spanish: cápsula, vaina

boll (bolls, present participle bolling; past and past participle bolled)

1. To form a boll or seed vessel; to go to seed.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Exodus 9:31 ↗:

     The barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.