Forms: 1 bolla, 2–6 bolle, (6–7 bowle, 7 bol, bole), 7– boll. [A variant of BOWL sb.1:—OE. bolla = MDu. bolle, Du. bol, ON. bolli wk. masc., cognate with OHG. bolla, MHG. bolle wk. fem. ‘bud, globular vessel’; see BOWL. Sense 2 may also be compared with L. bulla, It. bolla, F. boule, bulle bubble.]
† 1. Earlier spelling of BOWL sb.1, q.v.
† 2. A vesicle or bubble. Obs.
a. 1300. Fragm. Pop. Science (Wr.), 331. As ic seide ȝou er of þreo bollen, if ȝe understode; In þe nyþemeste bolle þer þe lyvre doþ out springe.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. cxxviii. (1495), 935. The bolle that ryseth on the water that boyleth … highte bulla.
3. spec. A rounded seed-vessel or pod, as that of flax or cotton.
a. 1500[?]. Med. MS. Cathedr. Hereford, 8 (Halliw.). Take the bolle of the popy while it is grene.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 146. The bolles of flaxe … made drye with the son to get out the sedes.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. (1568), 39 a. These knoppes or heades [of flax] are called in Northumberland bowles.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. XIX. 30. A second kind of poppie called black, out of the heads or bols whereof a white juice or liquor issueth.
1660. Sharrock, Vegetables, 22. They thresh it [flax] not out of the boles till March.
1865. Livingstone, Zambesi, x. 214. They cultivate cotton … the staple being long and the boll larger than what is usually met with.
† 4. A round knob on any utensil, piece of furniture, or the like. Obs.
a. 1600[?]. Turke & G., 220, in Furniv., Percy Folio, I. 98. Gawaines boy to it did leape, & gatt itt by the bowles great.
1660. Howell, Dict., XII. The Bolls, i pomi, les pommes.
† 5. The Adam’s apple: see THROAT-BOLL. Obs.
6. Comb., as † boll-roaking (see quot.); † boll-weed, the Greater Knapweed (Centaurea Scabiosa); boll-worm, an insect that destroys the cotton boll or pod.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (1856), 59. That [straw] which is layd in the filling overnight to save the stack from wettinge is called boll-roakinge of a stacke.
