boll
/bɒl/US/boʊl/
boll noun: the rounded seed-bearing capsule of a cotton or flax plant.
Noun
boll (plural bolls)
- The rounded seed-bearing capsule of a cotton or flax plant.
- 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.1853, Solomon Northup, chapter XII, in [David Wilson], editor, Twelve Years a Slave. […], London: Sampson Low, Son & Co.; Auburn, N.Y.: Derby and Miller, →OCLC, page 167
- 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.1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 1, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Bantam, published 1971, page 6
- A protuberance or excrescence growing on the trunks of some trees, a burl.
- An old dry measure equal to six bushels.
- I ſowed on this Ground, without any Dung or Manure, a Lippy of Oats, from which I had a Boll wanting a Chopin.1742, Virgil, “Appendix to the Georgicks”, in James Hamilton, transl., Virgil’s Pastorals Translated into English Prose; as also His Georgicks, […], Edinburgh: Printed by W. Cheyne, […]; [s]old by J....
- 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, […]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...
Verb
boll (third-person singular simple present bolls, present participle bolling, simple past and past participle bolled)
- To form a boll or seed vessel; to go to seed.
- The barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 9:31
Proper noun capitalized: Boll
Boll (plural Bolls)
boll meaning in Tamil, Punjabi and Persian
boll in Tamil
- காய்
boll in Punjabi
- the rounded seed-bearing capsule of a cotton or flax plant
- ਟੀਂਡਾ ṭīṇḍā
boll in Persian
- the rounded seed-bearing capsule of a cotton or flax plant
- وش vaš, کنوزه konuze, غوزه ġuze
Forms of boll
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bolls |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bolls |
| present participle | bolling |
| past participle | bolled |
| past | bolled |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Bolls |
| alternative form | Boell |
Origin of boll
From Middle English bolle (“pod; shell”) and Middle Dutch bolle (“round object”), from Frankish *bollo, all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *bullô (“round object; bowl”). More at bowl.
* As a Danish and German surname, from Danish Bøll, German Böll. * Also as a German surname, from the personal name Baldo (see Bold). Compare Boell. * As an English surname, variant of Bull. * Also as an English surname, from the noun bowl. Compare Bowler. * As a Scottish surname, variant of Boyle.
Words formed from boll
Phrases with boll
Words that rhyme with boll
7 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about boll
- What does boll mean?
- Boll means the rounded seed-bearing capsule of a cotton or flax plant.
- What is boll in Tamil?
- Boll in Tamil is காய். See Boll meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is boll?
- Boll can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce boll?
- Boll is pronounced /bɒl/ (UK).
- What is the plural of boll?
- The plural of boll is bolls.
Words near boll in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: boll (page history and authors); Boll (page history and authors); boll (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-boll.wav.
Cite this entry: “boll.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/boll. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.