poll

Adjective

1. Bred without horns, and thus hornless.
   • Poll Hereford
   • Red Poll cows
   • Sheep, that is, the Horned sort, and those without Horns, called Poll Sheep [...] - 1757, The monthly review, or, literary journal, volume 17, page 416:

Noun Entry 2

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

   Synonyms: survey

2. 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.
   • 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,...
   • The other returns having come in, the result of the poll, that Sir James Graham had been superseded by Major Aglionby, was declared at Carlisle soon after 11 a.m. - 1942 May-June, Charles E. Lee, “The Brampton Railway”,...

   Synonyms: vote election

3. A polling place (usually as plural, polling places)
   • The polls close at 8 p.m.
4. The result of the voting, the total number of votes recorded.
5. The head, particularly the scalp or pate upon which hair (normally) grows.
   • […]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:...
   • 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....

   Synonyms: scalp

6. A mass of people, a mob or muster, considered as a head count.
   • We are the greater poll, and in true fear They gave us our demands. - c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...
   • 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, &...
7. The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
8. The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.

Noun Entry 3

1. A pet parrot.

Noun UK, dated

1. One who does not try for honors at university, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman.

Verb

1. To take, record the votes of (an electorate).
2. To solicit mock votes from (a person or group).
3. To vote at an election.
   • 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...
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.
   • 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.
   • 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. - [1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads...
6. To cut the hair of (a creature).
   • when he [Absalom] polled his head - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Bible Samuel/#14 2 Samuel:14–26:
   • 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. To remove the horns of (an animal).
8. To remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop.
   • to poll a tree
9. 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. To be judged in a poll.
    • 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...
11. To extort from; to plunder; to strip. Especially in conjunction with pill for emphasis.
    • 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...
    • 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, →OCLC, stanza 6:
12. To impose a tax upon.

Wikipedia

poll