boll

noun

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.”

   “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. 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.”

   “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, […]”

   “The waggons are deep and square; wider at the top than at the bottom, and are fast at all sides. The bottom has hinges, and can be let down to discharge the coals, of which these waggons contain about three bolls each.”

verb

1. To form a boll or seed vessel; to go to seed.

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

name

1. A surname from the Germanic languages.
2. A surname from the Germanic languages.