Forms: 4–5 bolle, 5– boll, (6 boull, 6–7 boule, 7 bole), also Sc. 6– bow. [app. distinct from the preceding, being pronounced (bōu, bōu) in modern Scotch, and vernacularly written bow, bowe, since 16th c., while bowl is pronounced (boul). As it is entirely a northern word, it may possibly be a. ON. bolli, Da. bolle, the Scandinavian equivalent of OE. bolla BOWL.]
A measure of capacity for grain, etc., used in Scotland and the north of England, containing in Scotland generally 6 imperial bushels, but in the north of England varying locally from the ‘old boll’ of 6 bushels to the ‘new boll’ of 2 bushels. Also a measure of weight, containing for flour 10 stone (= 140 pounds). (A very full table of its local values is given in Old Country and Farming Words (E. Dial. Soc. 1880, p. 168).
c. 1375. Barbour, Bruce, III. 211. Off Ryngis … He send thre bollis to Cartage.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot., II. 298. He delt, ilk owlk, iv bowis of quheit.
1570. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1835), I. 344. Sex bolls aitis and sex bollis beir. Ibid. (1590), (1860), II. 248. Xxij boules of otes there 44s. iij boulls of big there 10s.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 57. The boll … salbe in the deipnes nine inches … And in the Roundnes aboue, it sall contein thrie score and twelue inches.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Penniless Pilgr., Wks. I. 130/2. Euery Bole containes the measure of foure English bushels.
1651. Proc. Parliament, No. 88. 1353. And [the Scots Forces] seized 20000 Boules of Corne at Leith.
1691. Ray, N. C. Wds., Boll of salt, i. e. two bushels.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., II. i. (1844), 18. Yestreen I brew’d a bow o’ maut.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 291. In Strathearn it [shell marle] is sold from eight to ten pence the boll, being eight cubical feet.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xxvi. You are owing to the Laird four stones of barleymeal and a bow of oats.
1851. Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh., 8. The coal boll contains 9676·8 cubic inches, or 34·899 imperial gallons.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 1126. In Northumberland (Alnwick, Morpeth, and Hexham markets) [wheat is sold] per new boll of 16 gallons; in Bedford and Wooller markets by the old boll of 48 gallons.
1883. J. H. Chatterton, in Times, 9 March, 4/6. With respect to wheat, out of 65 towns selling by measure, only 35 used the Imperial quarter, the others selling by coombs, sacks, loads, bolls, [etc.].
