Poll

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) The casting or recording of the votes of registered electors; as, the close of the poll.

(2): ( n.) The place where the votes are cast or recorded; as, to go to the polls.

(3): ( v. i.) To vote at an election.

(4): ( v. t.) To remove the poll or head of; hence, to remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop; to shear; as, to poll the head; to poll a tree.

(5): ( v. t.) 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.

(6): ( v. t.) To extort from; to plunder; to strip.

(7): ( v. t.) To impose a tax upon.

(8): ( v. t.) To pay as one's personal tax.

(9): ( v. t.) To enter, as polls or persons, in a list or register; to enroll, esp. for purposes of taxation; to enumerate one by one.

(10): ( v. t.) 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.

(11): ( v. t.) To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight line without indentation; as, a polled deed. See Dee/ poll.

(12): ( n.) The European chub. See Pollard, 3 (a).

(13): ( n.) Specifically, the register of the names of electors who may vote in an election.

(14): ( n.) A parrot; - familiarly so called.

(15): ( n.) One who does not try for honors, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman.

(16): ( n.) The head; the back part of the head.

(17): ( n.) A number or aggregate of heads; a list or register of heads or individuals.

(18): ( n.) The broad end of a hammer; the but of an ax.

King James Dictionary

POLL, n.

1. The head of a person, or the back part of the head, and in composition, applied to the head of a beast, as in poll-evil. 2. A register of heads, that is, of persons. 3. The entry of the names of electors who vote for officers. Hence, 4. An election of officers, or the place of election.

Our citizens say, at the opening or close of the poll, that is, at the beginning of the register of voters and reception of votes, or the close of the same. They say also, we are going to the poll many voters appeared at the poll.

5. A fish called a chub or chevin. See Pollard.

POLL, To lop the tops of trees.

1. To clip to cut off the ends to cut off hair or wool to shear. The phrases, to poll the hair, and to poll the head, have been used. The latter is used in  2 Samuel 14:26 . To poll a deed, is a phrase still used in law language. 2. To mow to crop. Not used. 3. To peel to strip to plunder. 4. To take a list or register of persons to enter names in a list. 5. To enter one's name in a list or register. 6. To insert into a number as a voter.

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

POLL . ‘By the poll’ (  Numbers 3:47 ) is ‘by the head.’ Cf. Shaks. Hamlet , iv. v. 196, ‘All flaxen was his poll. The idea in the Hebrew word is ‘roundness,’ and so to ‘poll’ the head is to give it the appearance of roundness by cutting off the hair. Cf. More, Utopia , ed. Arber, p. 49, Their heades he not polled or shanen, but rounded a lytle about the eares.’

Holman Bible Dictionary

 2 Samuel 14:26 Ezekiel 44:20 Micah 1:16 Numbers 1:2 1 Chronicles 23:24

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The skull or head, but used to express a person.  Numbers 1:2-22;  Numbers 3:47;  1 Chronicles 23:3,24 .

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

The head,  Numbers 2:34 . To poll the head is to cut off the hair,  2 Samuel 14:25,26;  Ezekiel 44:20 .

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

pōl  : The word (on the derivation of which see Skeat, Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language , 360) has been eliminated as a verb in the American Standard Revised Version. In the King James Version and English Revised Version it represents the Hebrew verbs כּסם , kāṣam , literally "to shear" (  Ezekiel 44:20 ), גּזז , gāzaz , literally, "to pull out," "to uproot," thence "to shear the sheep," figuratively , "to destroy an enemy" ( Micah 1:16 ), גּלח , gālaḥ , in Piel, literally, "to make bald or roundheaded" ( 2 Samuel 14:26 ) and קצץ , ḳācac , "to cut off" ( Jeremiah 9:26;  Jeremiah 25:23;  Jeremiah 49:32 ). The Hebrew noun is גּלגּלת , gulgōleth . As will be seen from the above enumeration, the Hebrew verb differ considerably in etymology, while Revised Version has not tried to distinguish. In  Micah 1:16 we have a reference to the oriental custom of cutting or tearing one's hair as a sign of mourning for one's relatives. "Make thee bald, and cut off thy hair (King James Version and English Revised Version "poll thee," Hebrew gāzaz ) for the children of thy delight: enlarge thy baldness as the eagle (margin "vulture"); for they are gone into captivity from thee." The priests, the sons of Zadok, are instructed to abstain from outward resemblance to heathen patterns of priesthood: "Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only cut off the hair (the King James Version and the English Revised Version, "poll," Hebrew kāṣam ) of their heads" ( Ezekiel 44:20 ). The Piel form of gālaḥ is employed in the description of the annual hair-cutting of Absalom ( 2 Samuel 14:26 ). Thrice we find the verb "to poll" as the translation of Hebrew ḳācac , where the American Standard Revised Version materially improves the translation by adopting the marginal version of the King James Version ( Jeremiah 9:26;  Jeremiah 25:23;  Jeremiah 49:32 ). See Hair .

The noun ( gulgōleth , lit. "head") is translated "poll" in the phrase "by the poll," "by their polls" (  Numbers 1:2 ,  Numbers 1:18 ,  Numbers 1:20 ,  Numbers 1:22;  Numbers 3:47;  1 Chronicles 23:3 ,  1 Chronicles 23:14 ). The expression has its origin in the numbering of persons by their heads, in the same way in which we speak of head-tax, etc.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( גֻּלְגֹּלֶת , Gulgoleth,  Numbers 1:2;  Numbers 1:18;  Numbers 1:20;  Numbers 1:22;  Numbers 3:47;  1 Chronicles 23:3;  1 Chronicles 23:24), the head (as rendered in  1 Chronicles 10:10), or Skull (as in  Judges 9:53;  2 Kings 9:35). The verb ‘ "to poll" in the A. V. is the rendering of גָּזִז , גָּלִח , or כָּסִס , all signifying To Shear.