▪ I. † ˈpollard, n.1 Obs. exc. Hist.
[app. f. poll n.1 + -ard (in reference to its device, a head: cf. the names crocard, rosary, leonine, eagle, etc. given to other foreign coins).]
One of various base coins of foreign origin, current in England in the end of the 13th c., as an equivalent of the penny; in 1299 declared illegal.
| 1299 in Liber Custumarum (Rolls) I. 187 Ordene est par nous e nostre Counsaill,..qe la mauveise moneie, qe hom apele ‘crocard’ e ‘pollard’, e autre tele male moneie, ne courge en nostre dit reiaume, auxi com ad fait cea en ariere. 1308–9 Rolls of Parlt. I. 273/2 A ly furent disaloue sur sun ascunt liv li del polards, del temps qe ele pollard corust pur une Esterlyng. a 1363 Higden Polychronicon (Rolls) VIII. 288 Rex Edwardus damnavit subito monetam surreptitiam et illegitimam quam pollardas, crocardos, rosarios nominabant, qui paulatim et latenter loco sterlingorum irrepserant. 1387 Trevisa transl., Kyng Edward dampned sodeynliche fals money þat was slyliche i-brouȝt up: Men cleped þe money pollardes, crocardes and rosaries, and were putte forþ litel and litel and priveliche in stede of sterlynges. First þey made oon of hem worþ an half peny, and þan he fordede hem all out. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 182. 1601–2 W. Fulbecke 1st Pt. Parall. 41 If..the obligee refuseth the money when it is tendered in pollardes, which afterward are embased. 1605 Camden Rem. (1636) 186 The same King likewise called in certaine counterfeit pieces coyned by the French called Pollards. 1716 M. Davies Athen. Brit. III. 78 Forreign Coyns and Counterfeit-Money, cry'd down, or considerably loar'd by Edw. I by the Name of Pollards, Crocards, Staldings, Eagles, Leonines, Rosaries, and Steepings. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. ii. 178 A considerable circulation of Flemish coins, apparently of low purity... Pollards, Crockards, Scaldings, Brabants, Eagles, Leonines [etc.]. |
▪ II. pollard, n.2 (a.)
(ˈpɒləd)
Also 6 polerde, 6–8 -ard, 7 -ord.
[In senses 1–3, prob. also in 4, f. poll v. + -ard.]
I. 1. An animal of a kind naturally horned, as an ox or stag, which has cast or lost its horns; also, an ox, sheep, or goat of a hornless variety.
| 1546 Plumpton Corr. (Camden) 251 Ye shall se a polard or tow, both rid & falow, & se all our good coxs fight. 1611 Beaum. & Fl. Philaster v. iv, 2 Cit. He has no horns, sir, has he? Cap. No, sir, he's a pollard. 1623 Cockeram, Pollard, is a Stagge, or any other male Deere, hauing cast his head. 1658 in Phillips. 1736 Bailey Househ. Dict. 304 The sort of goat without horns or such as are call'd pollards, are much commended. |
2. A tree which has been polled or cut back, at some height above the ground, so as to produce at that point a thick close growth of young branches, forming a rounded head or mass.
| 1611 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., For sa[w]ing and cleving owt of polords vj. 1662 Petty Taxes 44 The same ill husbandry, as to make fuel of young saplings, instead of dotards and pollards. 1796 Campaigns 1793–4 I. ii. ii. 103 Impenetrable hedge rows, composed of sturdy pollards. 1816 Southey Poet's Pilgr. Waterloo i. xx, The pollard that the Flemish painter loves. 1859 W. S. Coleman Woodlands (1866) 89 Even the stunted pollard..is not without its pictorial value. |
| Comb. 1885 G. Allen Babylon xxix, Long straight pollard⁓lined roads. |
† 3. Short for pollard wheat: see B. 1. Obs.
| 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 49 White pollard or red, that so richly is set, for land that is heauie is best ye can get. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 543 The next is small Pollard, which loues an indifferent earth. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 268/2. |
II. 4. Bran sifted from flour; techn. a finer grade of bran containing some flour; also, flour or meal containing the finer bran. Cf. toppings.
| 1577 Harrison England ii. vi. (1877) i. 154 The coursest of the bran (vsuallie called gurgeons or pollard). 1601 in Househ. Ord. (1790) 291 The Serjeants of the pastry..to have for their fees all the pollard which comes of the meale. 1763 Museum Rust. I. lxxi. 309, I feed my horse with the chaff, and add but one eighth part of pollard. 1817–18 Cobbett Resid. U.S. (1822) 160 Will it be believed, in another century, that the law-givers of a great nation actually passed a law to compel people to eat pollard in their bread,..for the purpose of..adding to the quantity of bread in a time of scarcity? 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 405 A bushel of wheat..will yield, on being ground,—Of bread flour 47, fine pollard 41/4, coarse pollard 4, bran 23/4, Loss of weight..2; = 60 lbs. |
B. attrib. or as adj.
† 1. Of wheat: Beardless, awnless. Obs.
| 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §34 Polerde wheate hath noo anis. 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. (1586) 26 b, We call it pold or pollard, that hath no aanes upon the eares. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Middlesex 189 The Mildew..which sticketh on notted or pollard Wheat. 1765 [see polled ppl. a. 4]. |
2. That is a pollard (tree); polled, lopped.
| 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 108 These Pollard or Shrowded Trees need no Fence to be maintained about them. 1776 Pennant Zool. (1812) I. 264 Grubbing up an old pollard ash. 1815 M. Birkbeck Journ. France 48 The olive is a miserable looking tree, most like a pollard willow. 1831 Lytton Godolphin xii, Grassy banks, over-grown with the willow and pollard oak. 1880 Shorthouse J. Inglesant xxxiv. 487 The pollard firs upon the ramparts stood out distinctly in fantastic forms. |
b. transf. or fig. Bald-headed.
| 1855 Dickens Dorrit xxxi, Flecks of light in his flat vista of pollard old men. |
▪ III. † ˈpollard, n.3 Obs.
[f. poll n.1 + -ard: from its large head, whence also the names testard, chevin, capito, etc.]
A fish: the chub or chevin.
| 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 65/2 Capito,..cephalus fluuialis. Munier,..vilain,..testard, a capitis magnitudine. A Polard. 1611 Cotgr., Munier, a miller..; also, a Pollard, or Cheuin (fish). 1706 in Phillips. 1721 Bailey, Pollard, a Chevin or Chub-fish. 1736–61 in Ainsworth Lat. Dict. |
▪ IV. pollard, v.
(ˈpɒləd)
[f. pollard n.2]
trans. To cut off the branches of (a tree), leaving only the main trunk; to make a pollard of.
| 1670 Evelyn Sylva xviii. §1 (ed. 2) 80 The Black Poplar is frequently pollar'd when as big as ones arm, eight or nine foot from the ground. 1707 Mortimer Husb. (1721) II. 39 Those that are pollarded grow the most knotty and full of Burs. 1887 C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 420 In order to obtain as large a yield of juice as possible the natives pollard the trees when at a height of ten to twelve feet. |
| fig. 1836 Hare Guesses Ser. ii. (1874) 75, I hate to see trees pollarded—or nations. 1858 W. Johnson Ionica 62 They are pollarded by cares And give themselves religious airs And grow not. 1859 G. Meredith R. Feverel II. x. 185 Richard having been, as it were, pollarded by Destiny, was now to grow up straight. |
Hence ˈpollarded ppl. a. (also fig.); ˈpollarding vbl. n. (also attrib. as pollarding-knife).
| 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing v. 286 Lopping and pollarding also produce wonderful changes on the aspect of trees. 1827 H. Steuart Planter's G. (1828) 519 A few pollarded, or at least mutilated Trees. 1830 Coleridge Table-t. 15 June, The pollarded man, the man with every faculty except the reason. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. viii. 287 A tree whose branches are cut off by the pollarding-knife. |