POLL . ‘By the poll’ ( Numbers 3:47 ) is ‘by the head.’ Cf. Shaks. Hamlet , iv. v. 196, ‘All flaxen was his poll. The idea in the Hebrew word is ‘roundness,’ and so to ‘poll’ the head is to give it the appearance of roundness by cutting off the hair. Cf. More, Utopia , ed. Arber, p. 49, Their heades he not polled or shanen, but rounded a lytle about the eares.’