poll - What does it mean?
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Definition of 'poll'English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) pol, polle . Meaning "collection of votes" is first recorded 1625, from notion of "counting heads".
Alternative forms
* pol, pole
Noun
( en-noun)
An election or a survey of a particular group of people.
- The student council had a poll to see what people want served in the cafeteria.
* Blackstone
- All soldiers quartered in place are to remove and not to return till one day after the poll is ended.
A number or aggregate of heads; a list or register of individuals, especially electors.
* Shakespeare
- We are the greater poll , and in true fear / They gave us our demands.
* Shakespeare
- The muster file, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand poll .
(usually|as plural) A place where voters cast ballots.
- The polls close at 8 p.m.
Hair
* 1883 ,
- ...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 .
The head, especially its top part.
* 1908 ,
- 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 broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
A fish, the pollard or European chub.
Synonyms
* (election or survey) election, survey
* (hair) hair
Derived terms
* opinion poll
* polling
* rolly polly
* straw poll
* tadpole
Verb
( en-verb)
To take, record the votes of (an electorate).
To solicit mock votes from (a person or group).
To vote at an election.
- (Beaconsfield)
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.
* Tickell
- 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
* Chapman
- 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.
To cut the hair of (a creature).
* Bible, 2 Sam. xiv. 26
- when he [Absalom] polled his head
* Sir T. North
- His death did so grieve them that they polled themselves; they clipped off their horse and mule's hairs.
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.
(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.
* Spenser
- which polls and pills the poor in piteous wise
To impose a tax upon.
To pay as one's personal tax.
* Dryden
- 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.
* Milton
- 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
- (Burrill)
Adjective
( head)
(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.
Etymology 2
Perhaps a shortening of (Polly), a common name for pet parrots.
Etymology 3
From (etyl)
Noun
( en-noun)
(UK|dated|Cambridge University) One who does not try for honors at university, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman.
See also
* gentleman's C
Similar to 'poll'ppl, pull, pail, pool, phial, pal, pall, peal, pol, peel, pill, pawl, pell, phal, pel, pul, phall, pial, paul, phaal
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