No 15
World English Dictionary
poll (pəʊl) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
— n
1. the casting, recording, or counting of votes in an election; a voting
2. the result or quantity of such a voting: a heavy poll
3. Also called: opinion poll
a. a canvassing of a representative sample of a large group of people on some question in order to determine the general opinion of the group
b. the results or record of such a canvassing
4. any counting or enumeration: a poll of the number of men with long hair
5. short for poll tax
6. a list or enumeration of people, esp for taxation or voting purposes
7. the striking face of a hammer
8. the occipital or back part of the head of an animal
— vb
9. to receive (a vote or quantity of votes): he polled 10 000 votes
10. to receive, take, or record the votes of: he polled the whole town
11. to canvass (a person, group, area, etc) as part of a survey of opinion
12. chiefly ( US ) to take the vote, verdict, opinion, etc, individually of each member (of a jury, conference, etc)
13. ( sometimes intr ) to cast (a vote) in an election
14. computing (in data transmission when several terminals share communications channels) to check each channel rapidly to establish which are free, or to call for data from each terminal in turn
15. to clip or shear
16. to remove or cut short the horns of (cattle)