pollard

plural pollards

1. attributiveoftenA pruned tree; the wood of such trees.

   Only a little pollard hedge kept us from their blood-shot eyes.

   1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, “Chapter 65”, in Lorna Doone

   3 more examples

   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 pollards – dotted oaks of vast growth – here and there a weird hollow thorn-tree – patches of fern and gorse.

   1857, Pisistratus Caxton [pseudonym; Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter I, in What will He Do with It? (Collection of British Authors; CCCCVII), Tauchnitz edition, volume I, Leipzig: Bernhard Tauchnitz, →OCLC, book II, page 140

   Nothing was to be seen save flat meadows, cows feeding unconcernedly for the most part, and silvery pollard willows motionless in the warm sunlight.

   1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 98

   And at this place there was a long, straight causeway, with two long rows of pollard willows, one upon either hand.

   1903, Howard Pyle, The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Part III, Chapter Third, page 116

2. A buck deer that has shed its antlers.
3. A hornless variety of domestic animal, such as cattle or goats.
4. obsoleterareA European chub (Squalius cephalus, syn. Leuciscus cephalus), a kind of fish.
5. AustraliaA fine grade of bran including some flour. The fine cell layer between bran layers and endosperm, used for animal feed.
6. historicalhobbiesA 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.

present singular third person pollards · participle present pollarding · participle past pollarded · past pollarded

1. agricultureTo prune a tree heavily, cutting branches back to the trunk, so that it produces dense new growth.

   I walked up the path, passing under a heavily pollarded oak.

   2019, Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me, Jonathan Cape, page 287

   3 more examples

   I didn't know one could pollard elms. I thought one only pollarded willows.

   1910, Edward Morgan Forster, chapter 11, in Howards End

   As well as coppicing, other trees were pollarded, or lopped about 6 ft up the trunk so that the resulting growth was beyond the reach of grazing animals. Pollarding lengthens the life of trees, and the frequently made estimate '1,000 years old' could well be true of some sturdy old trunks.

   1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 118

   Cutting back to the same position annually is usually referred to as pollarding; cutting nearly to the ground is usually called stooling. Both are good methods of controlling height and maintaining vigor on plants that would normally grow to a large size.

   2011, Edward F. Gilman, An Illustrated Guide to Pruning, 3rd edition, Clifton Park, N.Y.: Delmar, Cengage Learning, →ISBN, page 411

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.

   2026 September 21, Chris Mason, Frank Gardner, Isabella Allen, Richard Wheeler, “UK to help refuel Saudi jets countering Houthi attacks”, in BBC News, retrieved 22 Sep 2026

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.