Obs. exc. Sc. Also 6 coul, and see COW. [Of doubtful etymology: perhaps related to Icel. kollr head, poll, shaven crown, kolla a beast without horns, a pollard or polled cow, etc. In Icel. kolla has only the sense ‘to hit on the head,’ but Norw. kylla has the sense ‘to poll, prune, cut.’] trans. To poll, cut off the hair of, shear, clip, cut close. Ascham uses coul for ‘to pare or cut down the feather of an arrow.’
Hence Colled ppl. a.; Colling vbl. sb.
1483. Cath. Angl., 72. To Colle [printed colke], tondere.
1535. Coverdale, Isa. xv. 2. All their heades were colled, and all their beardes shauen.
1545. Ascham, Toxoph., II. (Arb.), 128. In couling or sheryng [the feather of an arrow], whether high or lowe. Ibid., 131. You maye knowe it afore it be pared … and agayne when it is colde.
1617. Markham, Caval., V. 20. Then you shall take a paire of sharpe colling sheares and colle the inside of his eares, as close to the skinne as may bee.
1808–79. Jamieson, To coll the hair, to poll it. To coll the candle, to snuff the candle.
1877. Lytteil, Landmarks, I. ii. 20. To write the last term in a colled or syncopated form.
