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A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Pol(l, v. Also: polle; pole, poil(l; powll. P.t. and p.p. also: pold(e. [ME polle(n (14th c.), e.m.E. poll, also pole (1609), powl(e (Caxton), poul(e (1565), to cut short the hair of, to crop (14th c.), plunder (c 1489), pay as poll-tax (1693), enumerate (1649), take votes (1625), disconnected derivatives f. Poll n.²] To poll, in various senses.

1. tr. a. To cut short, crop, shear (the hair of a person or animal). b.5 With a person or animal, also the head, as obj. c. absol. or intr.a. 1540–1 Selkirk B. Ct. (ed.) 228.
That Thome Nycholl had twa ky deid and ane uther kow pollit the hair of hir 1590 Crim. Trials I ii 201.
Quha poillit the hair of Robert Monro your brotheris heid 1598 James VI Basil. Doron 145/6.
His brethren may … polle his haire & paire his nailis 1606 Craig ii 104/14.
Sweet, if thou loues me, powll those locks I prayb. a1605 Montg. Flyt. 486 (T).
And ay as they pold it, they gart it quhryn 1581-1623 James VI Poems I 220/363.
The vines were standing bair, Trees voyd of fruit and Ceres polde, And lacking all her hair a1651 Calderwood VI 151.
He hurt the barber that was poling his head 1671 Edinb. B. Rec. X 108.
[He was] called as chirurgian to … Heriots Hospitall to poll the boyes headsc. 1595 Duncan App. Etym.
Tondeo, to clip, to poil 1596–7 Edinb. Surgeons 25.
Admittit the said Williame in maister & freman of the barbours craft allanerlie to clip poill wesche and schave 1640 S. Leith Rec. 31.
The barberis are inhibit to poll or barbarieze on the Lords day

2. tr. ? fig. To ‘fleece’, ‘strip’, impoverish by exploitation or sponging. 1567 G. Ball. 206.
The parson wald nocht haue a hure But twa, & they were bony … The parish priest that brutall beist He pollit thame priuelie [v.r. polit them wantonly] 1606 in Calderwood VI 533.
Can they not … devise the way how to gett him to the horne … , and then, their whole goods and estate falling into the bishop's hands, they sall be pilled and polled sickerlie

3. To rate for poll-tax (in a certain amount). 1699 Old Ross-shire I 75.
Thomas Ross chirurgian … that I and all such of that imployment are poled in twelf pounds Scots