Pollard
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A pruned tree; the wood of such trees. attributive, often
"The enclosure was indeed little beyond that of a good-sized paddock – its boundaries were visible on every side – but swelling uplands, covered with massy foliage sloped down to its wild irregular turf soil – soil poor for pasturage, but pleasant to the eye; with dell and dingle, bosks of fantastic pollards – dotted oaks of vast growth – here and there a weird hollow thorn-tree – patches of fern and gorse."
- 2 a usually horned animal that has either shed its horns or had them removed wordnet
- 3 A buck deer that has shed its antlers.
- 4 a tree with limbs cut back to promote a more bushy growth of foliage wordnet
- 5 A hornless variety of domestic animal, such as cattle or goats.
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- 6 A European chub (Squalius cephalus, syn. Leuciscus cephalus), a kind of fish. obsolete, rare
- 7 A fine grade of bran including some flour. The fine cell layer between bran layers and endosperm, used for animal feed. Australia
- 8 A 13th-century European coin minted as a debased counterfeit of the sterling silver penny of Edward I of England, at first legally accepted as a halfpenny and then outlawed. historical
- 1 To prune a tree heavily, cutting branches back to the trunk, so that it produces dense new growth.
"I didn't know one could pollard elms. I thought one only pollarded willows."
- 2 convert into a pollard wordnet
- 1 A surname transferred from the nickname.
- 2 A town in Escambia County, Alabama, United States.
- 3 A minor city in Clay County, Arkansas, United States.
- 4 An unincorporated community in Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas, United States.
Example
More examples"The enclosure was indeed little beyond that of a good-sized paddock – its boundaries were visible on every side – but swelling uplands, covered with massy foliage sloped down to its wild irregular turf soil – soil poor for pasturage, but pleasant to the eye; with dell and dingle, bosks of fantastic pollards – dotted oaks of vast growth – here and there a weird hollow thorn-tree – patches of fern and gorse."
Etymology
From Middle English poll (“head”) + the pejorative suffix -ard (“person characterized by or associated with something, often in a negative way”). The suffix has the same meaning as in drunkard and coward.
From Middle English poll (“head”) + the pejorative suffix -ard (“person characterized by or associated with something, often in a negative way”). The suffix has the same meaning as in drunkard and coward. When used as a verb, it is often used to mean a cut head, which originates from the terms usage in cattle, where "pollarded" is used to mean "headed," as opposed to horned.