pollard
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English poll (“pate, scalp”) + -ard. The coin sense derives from the original penny's uncrowned obverse bust, as opposed to the laurel-wreathed form appearing on the rosary. The verb derives from the noun.
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
pollard (plural pollards)
A pollard willow.
- (often attributive) A pruned tree; the wood of such trees.
- 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Lorna Doone, Chapter 65,
- Only a little pollard hedge kept us from their blood-shot eyes.
- 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Lorna Doone, Chapter 65,
- A buck deer that has shed its antlers.
- A hornless variety of domestic animal, as cattle or goats.
- (obsolete, rare) The European chub (Leuciscus cephalus), a kind of fish.
- (now Australia) A fine grade of bran including some flour.
- (numismatics, historical) 13th-century European coins minted as debased counterfeits of the sterling silver penny of Edward I of England, at first legally accepted as a halfpenny and then outlawed.
See alsoEdit
VerbEdit
pollard (third-person singular simple present pollards, present participle pollarding, simple past and past participle pollarded)
- (horticulture) To prune a tree heavily, cutting branches back to the trunk, so that it produces dense new growth.
- 1910, Edward Morgan Forster, Howards End, Chapter 11,
- I didn't know one could pollard elms. I thought one only pollarded willows.
- 1910, Edward Morgan Forster, Howards End, Chapter 11,