▪ I. boll, n.1
(bəʊl)
Forms: 1 bolla, 2–6 bolle, (6–7 bowle, 7 bol, bole), 7– boll.
[A variant of bowl n.1:—OE. bolla = MDu. bolle, Du. bol, ON. bolli wk. masc., cognate with OHG. bolla, MHG. bolle wk. fem. ‘bud, globular vessel’; see bowl. Sense 2 may also be compared with L. bulla, It. bolla, F. boule, bulle bubble.]
† 1. Earlier spelling of bowl n.1, q.v.
† 2. A vesicle or bubble. Obs.
| a 1300 Fragm. Pop. Science (Wr.) 331 As ic seide ȝou er of þreo bollen, if ȝe understode; In þe nyþemeste bolle þer þe lyvre doþ out springe. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xix. cxxviii. (1495) 935 The bolle that ryseth on the water that boyleth..highte bulla. |
3. spec. A rounded seed-vessel or pod, as that of flax or cotton.
| ? a 1500 Med. MS. Cathedr. Hereford 8 (Halliw.) Take the bolle of the popy while it is grene. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §146 The bolles of flaxe..made drye with the son to get out the sedes. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. (1568) 39 a, These knoppes or heades [of flax] are called in Northumberland bowles. 1601 Holland Pliny II. xix. 30 A second kind of poppie called black, out of the heads or bols whereof a white juice or liquor issueth. 1660 Sharrock Vegetables 22 They thresh it [flax] not out of the boles till March. 1865 Livingstone Zambesi x. 214 They cultivate cotton..the staple being long and the boll larger than what is usually met with. |
† 4. A round knob on any utensil, piece of furniture, or the like. Obs.
| ? a 1600 Turke & G. 220 in Furniv. Percy Folio I. 98 Gawaines boy to it did leape, & gatt itt by the bowles great. 1660 Howell Dict. xii, The Bolls, i pomi, les pommes. |
† 5. The Adam's apple: see throat-boll. Obs.
6. Comb., as † boll-roaking (see quot.); † boll-weed, the Greater Knapweed (Centaurea Scabiosa); boll-weevil (in full cotton-boll weevil), a weevil (Anthonomus grandis) destructive to the cotton-plant; also fig.; boll-worm, an insect which destroys the cotton boll or pod.
| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (1856) 59 That [straw] which is layd in the filling overnight to save the stack from wettinge is called boll-roakinge of a stacke. |
| 1895 Insect Life Mar. 295 Report on the Mexican Cotton-Boll Weevil in Texas..by C. H. Tyler Townsend..[dated] December 20, 1894. 1903 Westm. Gaz. 26 Nov. 12/1 The boll weevil..has caused America a loss of {pstlg}14,000,000. 1906 Ibid. 19 Dec. 1/3 The Mexican cotton boll-weevil. 1906 Springfield Weekly Republ. 19 July 16 The ‘boll-weevil democrats’ is the term of opprobrium which a southern paper applies to democrats who favour Hearst. 1928 Manch. Guardian Weekly 31 Aug. 180/1 Reports of boll weevil damage and crop deterioration. 1950 A. Lomax Mr. Jelly Roll (1952) 113 The longshoremen had two parades—one for the union men and one for the boll weevils, the scabs. |
| 1848 Rep. Secretary U.S. Dept. Agric. 1847 171 The destruction caused by the boll worm. 1888 Congress. Rec. 12 May 4070 Then comes the ‘army worm’, and then the ‘boll-worm’. |
▪ II. boll, n.2
(bəʊl)
Forms: 4–5 bolle, 5– boll, (6 boull, 6–7 boule, 7 bole), also Sc. 6– bow.
[app. distinct from the preceding, being pronounced (bʌʊ) in modern Scotch, and vernacularly written bow, bowe, since 16th c., while bowl is pronounced (bol). As it is entirely a northern word, it may possibly be a. ON. bolli, Da. bolle, the Scandinavian equivalent of OE. bolla bowl.]
A measure of capacity for grain, etc., used in Scotland and the north of England, containing in Scotland generally 6 imperial bushels, but in the north of England varying locally from the ‘old boll’ of 6 bushels to the ‘new boll’ of 2 bushels. Also a measure of weight, containing for flour 10 stone (= 140 pounds). (A very full table of its local values is given in Old Country and Farming Words (E. Dial. Soc. 1880 p. 168).
| c 1375 Barbour Bruce iii. 211 Off Ryngis..He send thre bollis to Cartage. 1536 Bellenden Cron. Scot. ii. 298 He delt, ilk owlk, iv bowis of quheit. 1570 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1835) I. 344 Sex bolls aitis and sex bollis beir. 1590 Ibid. (1860) II. 248, Xxij boules of otes there 44s. iij boulls of big there 10s. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 57 The boll..salbe in the deipnes nine inches..And in the Roundnes aboue, it sall contein thrie score and twelue inches. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Penniless Pilgr. Wks. i. 130/2 Euery Bole containes the measure of foure English bushels. 1651 Proc. Parliament No. 88. 1353 And [the Scots Forces] seized 20000 Boules of Corne at Leith. 1691 Ray N.C. Wds., Boll of salt, i.e. two bushels. 1725 Ramsay Gent. Sheph. ii. i. (1844) 18 Yestreen I brew'd a bow o' maut. 1799 J. Robertson Agric. Perth 291 In Strathearn it [shell marle] is sold from eight to ten pence the boll, being eight cubical feet. 1820 Scott Abbot xxvi, You are owing to the Laird four stones of barleymeal and a bow of oats. 1851 Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh. 8 The coal boll contains 9676·8 cubic inches, or 34·899 imperial gallons. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 1126 In Northumberland (Alnwick, Morpeth, and Hexham markets) [wheat is sold] per new boll of 16 gallons; in Bedford and Wooller markets by the old boll of 48 gallons. 1883 Times 9 Mar., Out of 65 towns selling by measure, only 35 used the Imperial quarter, the others selling by coombs, sacks, loads, bolls, etc. |
▪ III. boll, n.3 dial.
[Editors of Lancashire Glossary suggest connexion with bogle.]
An apparition; a bogle, an object of fear. See bolly.
| 1847–78 in Halliwell. 1875 in Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.) 46. |
▪ IV. † boll, v.1 Obs.
Also 5 bolle.
[ME. boll-en 14th c., found beside the earlier bolnen, of which it is prob. a phonetic modification (as in mill = miln).]
1. intr. To swell.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 6011 (Trin.) Bile & blister bollynge [3 earlier MSS. bolnande] sore. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 67 His Bodi was Bolled [other MSS. bolnid]. 1387 Trevisa Higden (1865) I. 298 Bocches vnder þe chyn i-swolle and i-bolled. 1547 Boorde Brev. Health xxxviii. 19 b, The belly wyl boll and swel. |
| fig. 1388 Wyclif 1 Cor. v. 2 Ȝe ben bolnyd [v.r. bollid] with pride. 1480 Caxton Chron. Eng. ccxxi. 211 Anone for wrath his hert gan bolle. |
b. fig. To increase.
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia 158 Euen while the doubtes most bolled, shee thus nourished them. |
▪ V. † boll, v.2 Obs.
Also 6 bole, bowle.
[f. boll, bowl n.]
To quaff the bowl; to booze.
| 1535 Coverdale Mich. ii. 11 They might syt bebbinge and bollynge. 1567 Harman Caveat 32 They bowle and bowse one to another. 1577 Kendall Flowers of Epigr. (N.) Gull, bib, and bole..Eche can in Germany. 1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. II. 95/1 Parese caused such as kept the ward, to swill and boll. |
▪ VI. † boll, v.3 Obs.
[f. boll n.1 (sense 3).]
To be or begin to be in boll. Cf. bolled ppl. a.2
| 1601 Holland Pliny xix. vi. (R.) Garlic indeed should not be suffered to boll and run up to seed. |
▪ VII. boll
obs. Sc. spelling of bow n.1