Noun

Singular poll

Plural polls

poll (plural polls)

1. An election or a survey of a particular group.

   The student council had a poll to see what people want served in the cafeteria.

   The network hub polled the department's computers to determine which ones could still respond.

2. A place voters cast ballots

   The polls close at 8 p.m.

3. Hair
   • 1883: Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island

     ...the doctor, as if to hear better, had taken off his powdered wig, and sat there, looking very strange indeed with his own close-cropped black poll.

4. The head, especially its top part.
   • 1908, O. Henry, A Tempered Wind

     And you might perceive the president and general manager, Mr. R. G. Atterbury, with his priceless polished poll, busy in the main office room dictating letters..

Synonyms

• (election or survey): election, survey
• (hair): hair

Derived terms

• polling
• straw poll
• opinion poll

Figurative head counts

• Polling, voting
• Opinion poll
• The polls, polling places
• Poll, an election
• Polling (computer science), sequential interrogation of devices

Other

• Poll (livestock), the top of the head
• Polled livestock, hornless livestock of normally horned species
• Polling, livestock dehorning
• Polling or pollarding, cutting the upper part of a tree and allowing it to regrow
• Polling (metallurgy), removing oxides when refining a metal

People

• Max Poll (born 1908), Belgian ichthyologist
• Graham Poll (born 1963), British referee
• Silvia Poll Ahrens (born 1970), Central American swimmer – with Olympic medal
• Claudia Poll (born 1972), Central American swimmer – with Olympic gold medal