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pollard

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Pollard¹

  • /ˈpɒl.əd/ UK
  • /ˈpɑ.lɚd/ US

Rhymes with -ɒlə(ɹ)d

Where it comes from

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.

proper noun

  1. A surname transferred from the nickname. The RAF Voyager plane, operating from a UK base in Cyprus, will begin "air-to-air refuelling" operations in the coming days after the UK agreed to a request from Saudi Arabia, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said.
  2. A town in Escambia County, Alabama, United States.
  3. A minor city in Clay County, Arkansas, United States.
  4. An unincorporated community in Victoria Township, Rice County, Kansas, United States.

pollard²

  • /ˈpɒl.əd/ UK
  • /ˈpɑ.lɚd/ US

Rhymes with -ɒlə(ɹ)d

Where it comes from

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.

noun pollards

  1. attributive, often A pruned tree; the wood of such trees. 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
  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.

verb pollards · pollarding · pollarded

  1. To prune a tree heavily, cutting branches back to the trunk, so that it produces dense new growth. I didn't know one could pollard elms. I thought one only pollarded willows.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: poll, willows, lop, crop, shear, clip, trim, prune, truncate, cutback, dehorn, stub, top, pare, dock, hack

Translations

Every language

verb to prune

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MLA

"pollard." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/pollard. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

pollard. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/pollard

Chicago

"pollard." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/pollard.

BibTeX
@misc{pollard_2026,
  title = {pollard},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/pollard},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}