pollard
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L325669 on Wikidata ↗verb
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L332540 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈpɒl.əd/ / /ˈpɑ.lɚd/
name
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.
- A surname transferred from the nickname.
- A town in Escambia County, Alabama, United States.
- A minor city in Clay County, Arkansas, United States.
- An unincorporated community in Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas, United States.
noun
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. 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.
- A pruned tree; the wood of such trees.
“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.”
“Only a little pollard hedge kept us from their blood-shot eyes.”
- A buck deer that has shed its antlers.
- A hornless variety of domestic animal, such as cattle or goats.
- A European chub (Squalius cephalus, syn. Leuciscus cephalus), a kind of fish.
- A fine grade of bran including some flour. The fine cell layer between bran layers and endosperm, used for animal feed.
- 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.
verb
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. 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.
- 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.”
“As well as coppicing, other trees were pollarded, or lopped about 6 ft up the trunk so that the resulting growth was beyond the reach of grazing animals. Pollarding lengthens the life of trees, and the frequently made estimate '1,000 years old' could well be true of some sturdy old trunks.”