bolls

Noun

boll (plural bolls)

1. 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
2. A protuberance or excrescence growing on the trunks of some trees, a burl.
3. (Scotland) 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....

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