When he [Absalom] pollled his head. --2 Sam. xiv.
26.
His death did so grieve them that they polled
themselves; they clipped off their horse and mule's
hairs. --Sir T.
North.
2. To cut off; to remove by clipping, shearing, etc.; to mow
or crop; -- sometimes with off; as, 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. --Chapman.
3. To extort from; to plunder; to strip. [Obs.]
Which polls and pills the poor in piteous wise.
--Spenser.
4. To impose a tax upon. [Obs.]
5. To pay as one's personal tax.
The man that polled but twelve pence for his head.
--Dryden.
6. To enter, as polls or persons, in a list or register; to
enroll, esp. for purposes of taxation; to enumerate one by
one.
Polling the reformed churches whether they equalize
in number those of his three kingdoms. --Milton.
7. To register or deposit, as a vote; to elicit or call
forth, as votes or voters; as, he polled a hundred votes
more than his opponent.
And poll for points of faith his trusty vote.
--Tickell.
8. (Law) To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight
line without indentation; as, a polled deed. See {Dee?
poll}. --Burrill.
2. A number or aggregate of heads; a list or register of
heads or individuals.
We are the greater poll, and in true fear They gave
us our demands. --Shak.
The muster file, rotten and sound, upon my life,
amounts not to fifteen thousand poll. --Shak.
3. Specifically, the register of the names of electors who
may vote in an election.
4. The casting or recording of the votes of registered
electors; as, the close of the poll.
All soldiers quartered in place are to remove . . .
and not to return till one day after the poll is
ended. --Blackstone.
5. pl. The place where the votes are cast or recorded; as, to
go to the polls.
6. The broad end of a hammer; the but of an ax.
7. (Zo["o]l.) The European chub. See {Pollard}, 3
(a) .
{Poll book}, a register of persons entitled to vote at an
election.
{Poll evil} (Far.), an inflammatory swelling or abscess on a
horse's head, confined beneath the great ligament of the
neck.
{Poll pick} (Mining), a pole having a heavy spike on the end,
forming a kind of crowbar.
{Poll tax}, a tax levied by the head, or poll; a capitation
tax.