Definition of "poll"

poll¹

/pɔl/

noun
plural polls
1. A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion.
2. A formal vote held in order to ascertain the most popular choice.
  Quotations
  All soldiers quartered in place are to remove […] and not to return till one day after the poll is ended.
  1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press
  The other returns having come in, the result of the poll, that Sir James Graham had been superseded by Major Aglionby, was declared at Carlisle soon after 11 a.m.
  1942 May-June, Charles E. Lee, “The Brampton Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 140, relating to an election in 1837
3. (usually as plural, polling places)
4. The result of the voting, the total number of votes recorded.
5. (now rare outside veterinary contexts) The head, particularly the scalp or pate upon which hair (normally) grows.
  Quotations
  […] 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.
  1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883
  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..
  1908, O. Henry, A Tempered Wind
  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.
  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, page 53
6. (in extended senses of the above) A mass of people, a mob or muster, considered as a head count.
  Quotations
  We are the greater poll, and in true fearThey gave us our demands.
  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, [Act III, scene i]
  The muster file, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand poll.
  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, [Act IV, scene iii]
7. The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
8. The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.
verb
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.
  Quotations
  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.
  1844, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter IV, in Coningsby; or, The New Generation. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], book V, page 271
4. To register or deposit, as a vote; to elicit or call forth, as votes or voters.
  Quotations
  poll for points of faith his trusty vote
  1717, Thomas Tickell, An Epistle from a Lady in England to a Gentleman at Avignon
5. To cut off; to remove by clipping, shearing, etc.; to mow or crop.
  Quotations
  Who, as he polled off his dart's head, so sure he had decreedThat all the counsels of their war he would poll off like it.The spelling has been modernized.
  , Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volumes (please specify the book number), London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843,
6. (transitive) To cut the hair of (a creature).
  Quotations
  when he [Absalom] polled his head
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Bible Samuel/#14 2 Samuel:14–26
  His death did so grieve them that they polled themselves; they clipped off their horse and mule's hairs.
  1579-1603, Thomas North, Plutarch's Lives
7. (transitive) To remove the horns of (an animal).
8. To remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop.
9. (transitive, computing, communication) To (repeatedly) request the status of something (such as a computer or printer on a network).
10. (intransitive, with adverb) To be judged in a poll.
  Quotations
  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.
  2008, Joanne McEvoy, The politics of Northern Ireland, page 171
11. (obsolete) To extort from; to plunder; to strip. Especially in conjunction with pill for emphasis.
  Quotations
  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.
  1579, Thomas North, Plutarch's Parallel Lives, Life of Brutus, paragraph 35
  Which pols and pils the poore in piteous wize
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 6
12. To impose a tax upon.
13. To pay as one's personal tax.
  Quotations
  the man that polled but twelve pence for his head
  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: Printed for Jacob Tonson […]
14. To enter, as polls or persons, in a list or register; to enroll, especially for purposes of taxation; to enumerate one by one.
  Quotations
  polling the reformed churches whether they equalize in number those of his three kingdoms
  1649, J[ohn] Milton, ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […]
15. (law) To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight line without indentation
adjective
1. (of kinds of livestock which typically have horns) Bred without horns, and thus hornless.
  Quotations
  Sheep, that is, the Horned sort, and those without Horns, called Poll Sheep [...]
  1757, The monthly review, or, literary journal, volume 17, page 416
  About 15000 cattle, comprising 10000 Hereford and Poll Hereford, 4000 Aberdeen Angus and 1000 Shorthorn and Poll Shorthorn, are grazed [...]
  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
  Otherwise, both horned and poll sheep continue to be bred from an inner stud.
  1970, The Pastoral review, volume 80, page 457

poll²

/pɒl/

noun
plural polls
1. A pet parrot.

poll³

/pɒl/

noun
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.

Definition of "poll"

poll1

noun

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verb

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adjective

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poll2

noun

poll3

noun

poll¹

poll²

poll³