poise, a weight (for exercise), a dumb-bell; ‘Poyses made of leadde’, Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i, c. 16, § 1; poyse, heavy fall; Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 54. See [peise].
poisure, poise, balance, effect. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, i. 1 (Valentine).
poking-stick, poker, a stick or iron for setting the plaits of ruffs. Wint. Tale, iv. 4. 228; Beaumont and Fl., Mons. Thomas, iii. 2. 2. Poker, Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. I, ii. 1 (Bellafront).
poldavy, polldavy, a sort of coarse canvas; ‘Poldavy, or buckram’, Peacham, Comp. Gentleman, c. 6, p. 54; Howell, Letters, vol. i, sect. 2, let. 10 (1621). See Nares, and NED. Named from Poldavide, dep. Finisterre, France; near Daoulas, whence E. dowlas (Phil. Soc. Trans., May, 1904). The name is Breton, meaning ‘David’s pool’.
poldron; see [pouldron].
pole-ax; see [pollax].
polehead, a ‘poll-head’, a tadpole. Marston, What you Will, ii. 1 (Quadratus); ‘Cavesot, a polehead, black vermine wherof frogs do come’, Cotgrave. Still in common use in the North; in Banffsh. the form is powet (or powit); see EDD. (s.v. Powhead). ME. polhevede (Gen. and Ex., 2977).
polepennery, extortion of pence; ‘To scrape for more rent is polepennery’, Wily Beguiled, sc. ii (1st quarto, 1606).
politien, a politician. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, bk. iii, c. 4, pp. 158, 159; politians, pl., Lyly, Sappho, i. 3. OF. policien, a citizen, a politician (Godefroy).
poll, to cut off the head of an animal, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, xvi. 112; to cut short the hair, Greene, Upst. Courtier, D. iij. b. (NED.); to plunder by excessive rent-raising, More’s Utopia (ed. Lumby, 29); to poll and pill, Bacon, Hen. VII (ed. Lumby, 148); Spenser, F. Q. v. 2. 6.