poll

noun

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.

   “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.”

   “The other returns having come in, the result of the poll, that Sir James Graham had been superseded by Major Aglionby, was declared at Carlisle soon after 11 a.m.”

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.”

   “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 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.”

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.”

   “The muster file, rotten and sound, upon my life, amounts not to fifteen thousand poll.”

7. The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
8. The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.
9. A pet parrot.
10. (UK, dated)One who does not try for honors at university, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman.
11. (UK, obsolete, slang)A disreputable woman.

verb

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.

   “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.”

   “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”

   “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.”

6. (transitive)To cut the hair of (a creature).

   “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)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)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.”

11. (obsolete)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.”

    “Which pols and pils the poore in piteous wize”

12. To impose a tax upon.
13. To pay as one's personal tax.

    “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.

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

15. To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight line without indentation

    “a polled deed”

adj

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 [...]”

   “About 15000 cattle, comprising 10000 Hereford and Poll Hereford, 4000 Aberdeen Angus and 1000 Shorthorn and Poll Shorthorn, are grazed [...]”

   “Otherwise, both horned and poll sheep continue to be bred from an inner stud.”

name

1. A diminutive of the female given name Mary.

   “"A gentleman, please Sir," said the blushing Mary, (or Poll as some unrespective and light-minded persons have misnamed her), and the gentleman entered.”

2. A common pet name for a parrot.
3. A surname transferred from the given name.