poll

verb15

1. •
   To take, record the votes of (an electorate).
2. •
   To solicit mock votes from (a person or group).
3. •
   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.
4. •
   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
5. •
   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.
6. •
   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
7. •
   To cut off; to remove by clipping, shearing, etc.; to mow or crop.

   • 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
8. •
   To cut the hair of (a creature).

   • when he [Absalom] polled his head — 1611
9. •
   To remove the horns of (an animal).
10. •
    To remove the top or end of; to clip; to lop.
11. •
    To cut or shave smooth or even; to cut in a straight line without indentation.
12. •
    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 — 1649
13. •
    To impose a tax upon.
14. •
    To pay as one's personal tax.
15. •
    (no longer used) 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

noun8

1. •
   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.
2. •
   A survey of people, usually statistically analyzed to gauge wider public opinion.
3. •
   The result of the voting, the total number of votes recorded.
4. •
   A polling place (usually as plural, polling places).

   • The polls close at 8 p.m.
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
6. •
   The broad or butt end of an axe or a hammer.
7. •
   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. — 1608
8. •
   The pollard or European chub, a kind of fish.

adjective1

1. •
   Bred without horns, and thus hornless.

   • Red Poll cows

noun2

1. •
   A pet parrot.
2. •
   (UK, old-fashioned) One who does not try for honors at university, but is content to take a degree merely; a passman.

noun1

1. •
   (slang, no longer used) A disreputable woman.