1841. Rime of the New-Made Baccalere. Around, around, all, all around, On seats with velvet lined, Sat Heads of Houses in a row, And Deans and College Dons below, With a POKER or two behind.
1853. Bradley (“Cuthbert Bede”), Verdant Green, vii. A sort of young procession—the Vice-Chancellor, with his and Yeoman-bedels. The silver maces carried by the latter gentlemen, made them by far the most showy part of the procession.... Ibid. Tom is the bell that you hear at nine each night; the Vice has to see that he is in proper condition, and, as you have seen, goes out with his POKERS for that purpose.
1865. Cornhill Mag., Feb., 225. The heads of houses and university officers attend [St. Mary’s, Oxford] in their robes, and form a stately procession to and from the church. The Vice-Chancellor is escorted by his mace-bearers, familiarly called POKERS, to and from his residence.
Poll, subs. (Cambridge).—The ordinary examination for the B.A. degree, as distinguished from the “Honours” examination. Also a student who takes the “Pass” degree without “Honours.” Hence POLL-DEGREE and POLL-MAN. To go out in the poll = to take an ordinary degree.
1855. Bristed, Eng. Univ., 62. Several declared that they would GO OUT IN THE POLL.
1884. Jas. Payn, in Cornhill, April, 370. I took my degree, however—a first-class POLL; which my good folks at home believed to be an honourable distinction.
1889. Academy, Mar. 2. It is related of some Cambridge POLL-MAN that he was once so ill-advised as to desert a private tutor.
Verb (Christ’s Hospital).—To maltreat; to make impure. [That is, “pollute.”]
Ponto, subs. (general).—New bread kneaded into a ball.
1900. St. James’s Gazette, Mar. 15, “Arnoldiana.” He [Matthew Arnold] was placed at the end of the great school, and, amid howls and jeers, pelted with a rain of PONTOS for some time. The PONTO, though a soft missile, being but the inside of a new roll, was probably sufficient in quantity.