boll

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

boll, n. [OE. bolle boll, bowl, AS. bolla. See Bowl a vessel.].

•  The pod or capsule of a plant, as of flax or cotton; a pericarp of a globular form.  [1913 Webster]
•  A Scotch measure, formerly in use: for wheat and beans it contained four Winchester bushels; for oats, barley, and potatoes, six bushels. A boll of meal is 140 lbs. avoirdupois. Also, a measure for salt of two bushels.  [1913 Webster]

boll, v. i. 

 To form a boll or seed vessel; to go to seed.  [1913 Webster]
"The barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

boll, n. a rounded capsule containing seeds, esp. flax or cotton.

Idiom

boll-weevil a small American or Mexican weevil, Anthonomus grandis, whose larvae destroy cotton bolls.

Etymology

ME f. MDu. bolle: see BOWL(1)

THESAURUS

boll

ball, balloon, bladder, blob, bolus, bubble, bulb, bulbil, bulblet, burr, capsule, cod, ellipsoid, follicle, geoid, globe, globelet, globoid, globule, glomerulus, gob, gobbet, hull, husk, knob, knot, legume, legumen, oblate spheroid, orb, orbit, orblet, pease cod, pellet, pericarp, pod, prolate spheroid, rondure, seed pod, seed vessel, seedbox, seedcase, silique, sphere, spheroid, spherule