poll
Part of speech: noun
verb
adj
Morphological type: simple
Topics: communication
communications
computing
engineering
law
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
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".
Inflected forms:
form: polls
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: pol
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: pole
pos: noun
tags: alternative
form: polls
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: polling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: polled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: polled
pos: verb
tags: past
form: pol
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: pole
pos: verb
tags: alternative
form: pol
pos: adj
tags: alternative
form: pole
pos: adj
tags: alternative
Senses:
gloss: A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion.
pos: noun
gloss: A formal vote held in order to ascertain the most popular choice.
pos: noun
examples: The student council had a poll to see what people want served in the cafeteria.
All soldiers quartered in place are to remove […] and not to return till one day after the poll is ended.
The other returns having come in, the result of the poll, that Sir James Graham had been superseded by Major Aglionby, was declared at Carlisle soon after 11 a.m.
gloss: A polling place (usually as plural, polling places)
pos: noun
examples: The polls close at 8 p.m.
gloss: The result of the voting, the total number of votes recorded.
pos: noun
gloss: The head, particularly the scalp or pate upon which hair (normally) grows.
pos: noun
examples: […]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.
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..
The main plate is formed in two halves, the upper plate having small sideplates, ear guards, an escutcheon plate (blank), and a brass plume-holder, as well as a hinged poll plate.
gloss: A mass of people, a mob or muster, considered as a head count.
pos: noun
examples: We are the greater poll, and in true fear
They gave us our demands.
The muster file, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand poll.
gloss: The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
pos: noun
gloss: The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.
pos: noun
gloss: To take, record the votes of (an electorate).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To solicit mock votes from (a person or group).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To vote at an election.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To register or deposit, as a vote; to elicit or call forth, as votes or voters.
pos: verb
examples: He polled a hundred votes more than his opponent.
poll for points of faith his trusty vote
gloss: To cut off; to remove by clipping, shearing, etc.; to mow or crop.
pos: verb
examples: to poll the hair; to poll wool; to poll grass
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.
gloss: To cut the hair of (a creature).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To remove the horns of (an animal).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop.
pos: verb
examples: to poll a tree
gloss: To (repeatedly) request the status of something (such as a computer or printer on a network).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The network hub polled the department’s computers to determine which ones could still respond.
gloss: To be judged in a poll.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: 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.
gloss: To extort from; to plunder; to strip. Especially in conjunction with pill for emphasis.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
examples: 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.
Which pols and pils the poore in piteous wize
gloss: To impose a tax upon.
pos: verb
gloss: To pay as one's personal tax.
pos: verb
examples: the man that polled but twelve pence for his head
gloss: To enter, as polls or persons, in a list or register; to enroll, especially for purposes of taxation; to enumerate one by one.
pos: verb
examples: polling the reformed churches whether they equalize in number those of his three kingdoms
gloss: To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight line without indentation
pos: verb
examples: a polled deed
gloss: Bred without horns, and thus hornless.
pos: adj
examples: Poll Hereford
Red Poll cows
Sheep, that is, the Horned sort, and those without Horns, called Poll Sheep [...]
About 15000 cattle, comprising 10000 Hereford and Poll Hereford, 4000 Aberdeen Angus and 1000 Shorthorn and Poll Shorthorn, are grazed [...]
Otherwise, both horned and poll sheep continue to be bred from an inner stud.
Related words: pollard
polliwog
tadpole
Derived words: blackpoll
bypoll
deed poll
dodipole
exit poll
Gallup poll
go to the polls
minipoll
opinion poll
outpoll
poleaxe
pollage
pollarchy
poll book
pollbook
poll card
pollee
pollercoaster
poll evil
polling
pollist
pollman
pollmeister
poll parrot
pollster
polltaker
polltaking
poll tax
poll-tax
poll worker
prepoll
push poll
push-poll
Red Poll
redpoll
robopoll
straw poll
stunpoll
telepoll
tracking poll
overpoll
pollable
poller
repoll
Translations: