see also: Poll
Etymology 1
From Middle English pol, polle "scalp, pate", from or cognate with Middle Dutch pol, pōle, polle ("top, summit; head"), from Proto-West Germanic *poll, from Proto-Germanic , from Proto-Indo-European *bolno-, *bōwl-, from Proto-Indo-European *bew-.
Akin to Scots pow, Saterland Frisian pol, nds-de Polle, Poll, nds-de Poller, Danish puld, Swedish - dialectal pull.
Meaning "collection of votes" is first recorded 1625, from the notion of "counting heads".
Pronunciation Nounpoll (plural polls)
A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion. - Synonyms: survey
A formal vote held in order to ascertain the most popular choice. - Synonyms: vote, election
- The student council had a poll to see what people want served in the cafeteria.
- 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC ↗:
- All soldiers quartered in place are to remove […] and not to return till one day after the poll is ended.
- A polling place (usually, as plural, polling places)
- The polls close at 8 p.m.
- The result of the voting, the total number of votes recorded.
(now, rare, outside, veterinary contexts) The head, particularly the scalp or pate upon which hair (normally) grows. - Synonyms: scalp
- 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC ↗:
- […] the doctor, as if to hear better, had taken off his powdered wig, and sat there, looking very strange indeed with his own close-cropped black poll.
- 1908, O. Henry, A Tempered Wind:
- And you might perceive the president and general manager, Mr. R. G. Atterbury, with his priceless polished poll, busy in the main office room dictating letters..
- (in extended senses of the above) A mass of people, a mob or muster, considered as a head count.
- c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene i]:
- We are the greater poll, and in true fear
They gave us our demands.
- c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All's Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:
- The muster file, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand poll.
- The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
- The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.
- French: sondage
- German: Umfrage
- Italian: sondaggio
- Portuguese: enquete, sondagem, sugestões, inquérito, avaliação, pesquisa
- Russian: опро́с
- Spanish: encuesta, sondeo
- German: Urne (ballot box)
- Italian: votazione, scrutinio
- Portuguese: votação
- Russian: голосова́ние
- German: Wahllokal
- Portuguese: urna
- Russian: избира́тельный уча́сток
poll (polls, present participle polling; simple past and past participle polled)
- (transitive) To take, record the votes of (an electorate).
- (transitive) To solicit mock votes from (a person or group).
- (intransitive) To vote at an election.
- 1844, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter IV, in Coningsby; or, The New Generation. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC ↗, book V, page 271 ↗:
- Mr. Millbank's friends were not disheartened, as it was known that the leading members of Mr. Rigby's Committee had polled; whereas his opponent's were principally reserved.
- To register or deposit, as a vote; to elicit or call forth, as votes or voters.
- He polled a hundred votes more than his opponent.
- 1717, Thomas Tickell, An Epistle from a Lady in England to a Gentleman at Avignon:
- poll for points of faith his trusty vote
- To cut off; to remove by clipping, shearing, etc.; to mow or crop.
- to poll the hair; to poll wool; to poll grass
- [1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC ↗; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC ↗:
- Who, as he polled off his dart's head, so sure he had decreed
That all the counsels of their war he would poll off like it.- The spelling has been modernized.
- (transitive) To cut the hair of (a creature).
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Bible Samuel/#14 2 Samuel:14–26 ↗:
- when he [Absalom] polled his head
- 1579-1603, Thomas North, Plutarch's Lives
- His death did so grieve them that they polled themselves; they clipped off their horse and mule's hairs.
- (transitive) To remove the horns of (an animal).
- To remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop.
- to poll a tree
- (transitive, computing, communication) To (repeatedly) request the status of something (such as a computer or printer on a network).
- The network hub polled the department’s computers to determine which ones could still respond.
- (intransitive, with adverb) To be judged in a poll.
- 2008, Joanne McEvoy, The politics of Northern Ireland, page 171:
- The election was a resounding defeat for Robert McCartney who polled badly in the six constituencies he contested and even lost his own Assembly seat in North Down.
- (obsolete) To extort from; to plunder; to strip. Especially in conjunction with pill for emphasis.
- 1579, Thomas North, Plutarch's Parallel Lives, Life of Brutus, paragraph 35:
- they slew Julius Caesar, who neither pilled nor polled the country but only was a favorer and suborner of all them that did rob and spoil, by his countenance and authority.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 6:
- Which pols and pils the poore in piteous wize
- To impose a tax upon.
- To pay as one's personal tax.
- 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Third Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC ↗:
- the man that polled but twelve pence for his head
- To enter, as polls or persons, in a list or register; to enroll, especially for purposes of taxation; to enumerate one by one.
- 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC ↗:
- polling the reformed churches whether they equalize in number those of his three kingdoms
- (legal) To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight line without indentation
- a polled deed
- Italian: raccogliere voti
- Spanish: encuesta, encuestas
- Italian: tagliare le corna
- (of kinds of livestock which typically have horns) Bred without horns, and thus hornless.
- Poll Hereford
- Red Poll cows
- 1757, The monthly review, or, literary journal, volume 17, page 416:
- Sheep, that is, the Horned sort, and those without Horns, called Poll Sheep [...]
- 1960, Frank O'Loghlen, Frank H. Johnston, Cattle country: an illustrated survey of the Australian beef cattle industry, a complete directory of the studs, page 85:
- About 15000 cattle, comprising 10000 Hereford and Poll Hereford, 4000 Aberdeen Angus and 1000 Shorthorn and Poll Shorthorn, are grazed [...]
- 1970, The Pastoral review, volume 80, page 457:
- Otherwise, both horned and poll sheep continue to be bred from an inner stud.
Perhaps a shortening of Polly, a common name for pet parrots.
Pronunciation- (British) IPA: /pɒl/
poll (plural polls)
- A pet parrot.
From Ancient Greek πολύς, as in hoi polloi.
Pronunciation- IPA: /pɒl/
poll (plural polls)
- (UK, dated, Cambridge University) One who does not try for honors at university, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman.
Poll
Etymology 1
From Polly, by rhyming with Molly, from Mary.
Pronunciation Proper noun- A female given name.
- 1833 The Pilgrim Brothers [signed Timotheus Scribewell], Romances of Chivalric Ages, H. Cope, page iv:
- "A gentleman, please Sir," said the blushing Mary, (or Poll as some unrespective and light-minded persons have misnamed her), and the gentleman entered.
- 1833 The Pilgrim Brothers [signed Timotheus Scribewell], Romances of Chivalric Ages, H. Cope, page iv:
- A common pet name for a parrot.
poll (plural polls)
- (UK, slang, obsolete) A disreputable woman.
From Paul.
Proper nounThis text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
