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poll

Pronunciation: /pəʊl/
Translate poll | into French | into German | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of poll

noun

  • 1 (often the polls) the process of voting in an election:the country went to the polls on March 10
  • the number of votes cast in an election:the ruling party won 24 seats, narrowly topping the poll
  • (the polls) the places where votes are cast in an election:the polls have only just closed
  • short for opinion poll.
  • 2 dialect a person’s head.
  • the part of the head on which hair grows; the scalp.
  • 3a hornless animal, especially one of a breed of hornless cattle. See also red poll.

verb

[with object]
  • 1record the opinion or vote of:over half of those polled do not believe the prime minister usually tells the truth
  • [no object, with adverbial] (of a candidate in an election) receive a specified number of votes:the Green candidate polled 3.6 per cent
  • 2 Telecommunications & Computing check the status of (a device), especially as part of a repeated cycle: the network manager can also use the software to poll each Mac on the net
  • 3cut the horns off (an animal, especially a young cow).
  • archaic cut off the top of (a tree or plant), typically to encourage further growth; pollard: there were some beautiful willows, and now the idiot Parson has polled them into wretched stumps

Derivatives

pollee

Pronunciation: /pəʊˈliː/
noun
poll (sense 1 of the verb).

Origin:

Middle English (in the sense 'head'): perhaps of Low German origin. The original sense was 'head', and hence 'an individual person among a number', from which developed the sense 'number of people ascertained by counting of heads' and then 'counting of heads or of votes' (17th century)

poll in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of poll in the US English dictionary

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