poll
UK /pəʊl/ · US /poʊl/ noun, verb, adjective, proper noun
Forms polls polling polled pol pole
- noun A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion.
- noun A formal vote held in order to ascertain the most popular choice. “The student council had a poll to see what people want served in the cafeteria.”
- noun A polling place (usually as plural, polling places). “The polls close at 8 p.m.”
- noun The result of the voting, the total number of votes recorded.
- noun (now rare outside veterinary medicine contexts) The head, particularly the scalp or pate upon which hair (normally) grows.
- noun (in extended senses of the above) A mass of people, a mob or muster, considered as a head count.
- noun The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
- noun The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.
- verb (transitive) To take, record the votes of (an electorate).
- verb (transitive) To solicit mock votes from (a person or group).
- verb (intransitive) To vote at an election.
- verb 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.”
- verb To cut off; to remove by clipping, shearing, etc.; to mow or crop. “to poll the hair; to poll wool; to poll grass”
- verb (transitive) To cut the hair of (a creature).
- verb (transitive) To remove the horns of (an animal).
- verb To remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop. “to poll a tree”
- adjective (of kinds of livestock which typically have horns) Bred without horns, and thus hornless.
- noun A pet parrot.
- noun (UK, dated, Cambridge University) One who does not try for honors at university, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman.
- proper noun A diminutive of the female given name Mary.
Synonyms
survey vote election scalp opinion poll public opinion poll canvass pate crown poll parrot canvas pollard
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".
Perhaps a shortening of Polly, a common name for pet parrots.
From Ancient Greek πολλοί (polloí, “the many, the masses”), as in hoi polloi.
From Polly, by rhyming with Molly, from Mary.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A parrot; --familiarly so called.
- noun One who does not try for honors, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman. [Cambridge Univ., Eng.]
- noun The head; the back part of the head. "All flaxen was his poll." Shak.
- noun A number or aggregate of heads; a list or register of heads or individuals.
Etymology [From Polly, The proper name.]
Etymology [Gr. Defn: One who does not try for honors, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman. [Cambridge Univ., Eng.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “poll”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details