poll

From Middle English pol, polle ("scalp, pate"), from or cognate with Middle Dutch pol, pōle, polle (“top, summit; head”),^[1] 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".

• pol, pole

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /pɔl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pəʊl/, /pɒʊl/, /pɒl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /poʊl/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /pol/
• Rhymes: -əʊl
• Homophones: pole, Pole

poll (plural polls)

2. A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion.

   Synonym: survey

4. 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.

   • 1942 May-June, Charles E. Lee, “The Brampton Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 140, relating to an election in 1837:

     The other returns having come in, the result of the poll, that Sir James Graham had been superseded by Major Aglionby, was declared at Carlisle soon after 11 a.m.

5. A polling place (usually as plural, polling places)

   The polls close at 8 p.m.

6. The result of the voting, the total number of votes recorded.
8. (now rare outside veterinary contexts) The head, particularly the scalp or pate upon which hair (normally) grows.

   Synonym: 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..

   • 2005, Stuart W. Pyhrr, Donald J. LaRocca, Dirk H. Breiding, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), The Armored Horse in Europe, 1480-1620, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 53:

     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.

9. (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.

10. The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
11. The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.

• pollard
• polliwog
• tadpole

poll (third-person singular simple present polls, present participle polling, simple past and past participle polled)

1. (transitive) To take, record the votes of (an electorate).
2. (transitive) To solicit mock votes from (a person or group).
3. (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.

4. 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

5. 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.

6. (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.

7. (transitive) To remove the horns of (an animal).
8. To remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop.

   to poll a tree

9. (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.

10. (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.

11. (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

12. To impose a tax upon.
13. 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: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

      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.
    • 1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC:

      polling the reformed churches whether they equalize in number those of his three kingdoms

15. (law) To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight line without indentation^[2]

    a polled deed

poll

1. (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.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɒl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒl

poll (plural polls)

1. A pet parrot.

From Ancient Greek πολλοί (polloí, “the many, the masses”), as in hoi polloi.

• IPA^(key): /pɒl/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒl

poll (plural polls)

1. (UK, dated, Cambridge University) One who does not try for honors at university, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman.

• gentleman's C

• “poll” in Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary: Based on Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, 7th edition, Springfield, Mass.: G[eorge] & C[harles] Merriam, 1963 (1967 printing), →OCLC.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈpoʎ]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

Inherited from Old Catalan poll, from Latin pullus.

poll m (plural polls)

1. chicken (bird)

• pollastre

Inherited from Old Catalan pooll~peoll, from Late Latin pēduculus.

poll m (plural polls)

1. louse (insect)

• espollar
• pollós

• llémena

• “poll” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Ultimately from Latin pōpulus.

poll m (plural polls)

1. poplar

   Synonym: pollancre

• poll blanc
• poll àlber

• “poll”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “poll” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
• “poll”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025

From Proto-Brythonic *pull, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *pullaz (“pool”), via either Old English pull, pyll (“tidal pool”) or Old Norse pollr. Cognate with Breton poull, Irish and Scottish Gaelic poll, and Welsh pwll.

poll m (plural pollow)

1. pool
2. pond

   Synonym: lagen

3. pit

   Synonym: pytt

4. anchorage

   Synonyms: ankorva, lulyn

From Proto-Brythonic *puɨll, from Proto-Celtic *kʷeislā. Cognate with Welsh pwyll.

poll m (plural pollow)

1. intelligence
2. reason

• Audio:

  (file)

poll

1. inflection of pollen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

poll

1. singular imperative of pollen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of pollen

poll

1. indefinite accusative singular of pollur

From Middle Irish poll (“hole”), from Old English pull, pyll (“tidal pool”) or Old Norse pollr (whence Icelandic pollur), from Proto-Germanic *pullaz (“pool”). Cognate with Welsh pwll.

• (Kerry) IPA^(key): /pˠɑul̪ˠ/, [pˠɔul̪ˠ]
• (Galway) IPA^(key): /pˠɑul̪ˠ/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /pˠʌl̪ˠ/

poll m (genitive singular poill, nominative plural poill)

1. hole
2. storage pit; disposal pit; extraction pit
3. pool, puddle; pond, sea
4. burrow, lair
5. dark, mean place (of prison)
6. shaft, vent hole
7. aperture
8. (anatomy) orifice, cavity
9. perforation
10. (figuratively) leak
11. pothole

• (pothole): linntreog

poll (present analytic pollann, future analytic pollfaidh, verbal noun polladh, past participle pollta)

1. (ambitransitive) to make a hole in, puncture, pierce, bore, perforate

• polltóir (“perforator”)
• uchtbhalla pollta (“machicolation”)

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “poll”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Finck, F. N. (1899) Die araner mundart [The Aran Dialect] (in German), Zweiter Band: Wörterbuch [Second volume: Dictionary], Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 209
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1975) The Irish of Cois Fhairrge, Co. Galway: A Phonetic Study, revised edition, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, § 215
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “poll”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Quiggin, E. C. (1906) A Dialect of Donegal, Cambridge University Press, page 23
• Sjoestedt, M. L. (1931) Phonétique d’un parler irlandais de Kerry [Phonetics of an Irish Dialect of Kerry] (in French), Paris: Librairie Ernest Leroux, page 61

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

poll

1. A head, particularly the scalp or pate upon which the hair (normally) grows

From Old Norse pollr.

• IPA^(key): /pɔlː/

poll m (definite singular pollen, indefinite plural pollar, definite plural pollane)

1. a small branch of a fjord, often with a narrow inlet

• “poll” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Borrowed from English poll.

poll n (plural polluri)

1. vote, election
2. opinion poll

• poll in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

From Middle Irish poll (“hole”), from Old English pull, pyll (“tidal pool”) or Old Norse pollr (whence Icelandic pollur), from Proto-Germanic *pullaz (“pool”). Cognate with Welsh pwll.

• IPA^(key): /pʰɔul̪ˠ/

poll m (genitive singular puill, plural puill)

1. mud, mire
2. pond, pool, bog

• poll-caca