Word: poll Part of Speech: verb Etymology: 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 *pullaz (“round object, head, top”), from Proto-Indo-European *bolno-, *bōwl- (“orb, round object, bubble”), from Proto-Indo-European *bew- (“to blow, swell”). Akin to Scots pow (“head, crown, scalp, skull”), Saterland Frisian pol (“round, full, brimming”, adjective), German Low German Polle, Poll (“round object, ball”), German Low German Poller (“head, tree-top, bulb”), Danish puld (“crown of a hat”), Swedish dialectal pull (“head”). Meaning "collection of votes" is first recorded 1625, from the notion of "counting heads". Pronunciation: /pɔl/, /pəʊl/, [pɒʊl], /pɒl/, /poʊl/ 1. To take, record the votes of (an electorate). Labels: transitive 2. To solicit mock votes from (a person or group). Labels: transitive 3. To vote at an election. Labels: intransitive Example: 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. 4. To register or deposit, as a vote; to elicit or call forth, as votes or voters. Example: He polled a hundred votes more than his opponent. Example: poll for points of faith his trusty vote 5. To cut off; to remove by clipping, shearing, etc.; to mow or crop. Example: to poll the hair; to poll wool; to poll grass Example: 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. 6. To cut the hair of (a creature). Labels: transitive Example: when he [Absalom] polled his head Example: 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. 7. To remove the horns of (an animal). Labels: transitive 8. To remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop. Example: to poll a tree 9. To (repeatedly) request the status of something (such as a computer or printer on a network). Labels: transitive Example: The network hub polled the department’s computers to determine which ones could still respond. 10. To be judged in a poll. Labels: intransitive Example: 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. 11. To extort from; to plunder; to strip. Especially in conjunction with pill for emphasis. Labels: obsolete Example: 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. Example: Which pols and pils the poore in piteous wize 12. To impose a tax upon. 13. To pay as one's personal tax. Example: the man that polled but twelve pence for his head 14. To enter, as polls or persons, in a list or register; to enroll, especially for purposes of taxation; to enumerate one by one. Example: polling the reformed churches whether they equalize in number those of his three kingdoms 15. To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight line without indentation Example: a polled deed