boll

Etymology

From Middle Dutch bolle (“round object”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɒl/
• Rhymes: -ɒl
• (US) IPA^(key): /boʊl/
• Rhymes: -oʊl
• Homophones: bole, bowl

Noun

boll (plural bolls)

1. The rounded seed-bearing capsule of a cotton or flax plant.
   • 1853, Solomon Northup, Twelve Years a Slave

     Sometimes the slave picks down one side of a row, and back upon the other, but more usually, there is one on either side, gathering all that has blossomed leaving the unopened bolls for a succeeding picking.

   • 1969, Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, 1971, Chapter 1, p. 6,

     The champion picker of the day before was the hero of the dawn. If he prophesied that the cotton in today’s field was going to be sparse and stick to the bolls like glue, every listener would grunt a hearty agreement.

2. (Scotland) An old dry measure, equal to six bushels.
   • 1792, Robert Bowmaker, “Number LI. Parish of Dunse, (County of Berwick.)”, in John Sinclair, editor, The Statistical Account of Scotland. Drawn Up from the Communications of the Ministers of the Different Parishes, volume IV, Edinburgh: Printed and sold by William Creech [et al.], OCLC 499791781, page 386:

     The farmers ſervants who have families, and engage by the year, are called hinds, and receive 10 bolls oats, 2 bolls barley, and 1 boll peas, which two laſt articles are called hummel corn, […]

Verb

boll (third-person singular simple present bolls, present participle bolling, simple past and past participle bolled)

1. To form a boll or seed vessel; to go to seed.
   • 1611, Bible (King James Version), Exodus 9:31:

     The barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.

Etymology

From Old Swedish balder, baller, from Old Norse bǫllr (“ball, globe”), from Proto-Germanic *balluz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰoln- (“round thing, bubble”), from *bʰel- (“to blow, inflate, swell”).

Pronunciation

• audio

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Noun

boll c

1. a ball; a more or less spherical object which is not hard or unyielding

See also

• klot
• kula
• sfär

References

• boll in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)