Dictionary

pollard en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpɑ.lɚd/ (US)
• (Australia) audio
• /ˈpɒl.əd/ (UK)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English poll (“head”) + the pejorative suffix -ard (“person characterized by or associated with something, often in a negative way”). The suffix has the same meaning as in drunkard and coward. When used as a verb, it is often used to mean a cut head, which originates from the terms usage in cattle, where "pollarded" is used to mean "headed," as opposed to horned.

Meanings

1. (attributive, often) A pruned tree; the wood of such trees.
   • Only a little pollard hedge kept us from their blood-shot eyes. 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, “Chapter 65”, in Lorna Doone:
   • The enclosure was indeed little beyond that of a good-sized paddock – its boundaries were visible on every side – but swelling uplands, covered with massy foliage sloped down to its wild irregular turf soil – soil poor for pasturage, but pleasant to the eye; with dell and dingle, bosks of fantastic pollards – dotted oaks of vast growth – here and there a weird hollow thorn-tree – patches of fern and gorse. 1857, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter I, in What will He Do with It? (Collection of British Authors; CCCCVII), Tauchnitz edition, volume I, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, →OCLC, book II, page 140:
   • Nothing was to be seen save flat meadows, cows feeding unconcernedly for the most part, and silvery pollard willows motionless in the warm sunlight. 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 98:
   • And at this place there was a long, straight causeway, with two long rows of pollard willows, one upon either hand. 1903, Howard Pyle, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Part III, Chapter Third, page 116
2. A buck deer that has shed its antlers.
3. A hornless variety of domestic animal, such as cattle or goats.
4. (obsolete, rare) A European chub (Squalius cephalus, syn. Leuciscus cephalus), a kind of fish.
5. (Australia) A fine grade of bran including some flour. The fine cell layer between bran layers and endosperm, used for animal feed.
6. (historical) A 13th-century European coin minted as a debased counterfeit of the sterling silver penny of Edward I of England, at first legally accepted as a halfpenny and then outlawed.

Forms

Coordinates

scalding · mitre · steeping · eagle · rosary · crockard · leonine

Translations (3)

fi karsittu puu (pruned tree) · fi nupopää (hornless variety of domestic animal) · fi nutipää (hornless variety of domestic animal)

pollard en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈpɑ.lɚd/ (US)
• (Australia) audio
• /ˈpɒl.əd/ (UK)
• (US) audio

Etymology

From Middle English poll (“head”) + the pejorative suffix -ard (“person characterized by or associated with something, often in a negative way”). The suffix has the same meaning as in drunkard and coward. When used as a verb, it is often used to mean a cut head, which originates from the terms usage in cattle, where "pollarded" is used to mean "headed," as opposed to horned.

Meanings

1. To prune a tree heavily, cutting branches back to the trunk, so that it produces dense new growth.
   • Cutting back to the same position annually is usually referred to as pollarding; cutting nearly to the ground is usually called stooling. Both are good methods of controlling height and maintaining vigor on plants that would normally grow to a large size. 2011, Edward F. Gilman, An Illustrated Guide to Pruning, 3rd edition, Clifton Park, N.Y.: Delmar, Cengage Learning, →ISBN, page 411:
   • I didn't know one could pollard elms. I thought one only pollarded willows. 1910, Edward Morgan Forster, chapter 11, in Howards End:
   • I walked up the path, passing under a heavily pollarded oak. 2019, Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me, Jonathan Cape, page 287:
   • As well as coppicing, other trees were pollarded, or lopped about 6 ft up the trunk so that the resulting growth was beyond the reach of grazing animals. Pollarding lengthens the life of trees, and the frequently made estimate '1,000 years old' could well be true of some sturdy old trunks. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 118:

Forms

Translations (12)

fi latvoa (to prune) · fr trogne (to prune) · gl demoucar (to prune) · tr budamak (to prune) · gl fradar (to prune) · gl cepar (to prune) · mk кастри (to prune) · fi karsia (to prune) · bg кастря (to prune) · ota بودامق (to prune) · gl decotar (to prune) · ca escapçar (to prune)