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• boll
  boll

  noun

  a rounded seed vessel or pod of a plant, as of flax or cotton.
• Böll
  Böll

  noun

  Heinrich (Theodor) 1917–85, German novelist and short-story writer: Nobel Prize 1972.

boll

¹ American  

[bohl] / boʊl /

noun

Botany.

• bolls
  plural

1. a rounded seed vessel or pod of a plant, as of flax or cotton.

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Böll ² American  

[bœl] / bœl /

noun

1. Heinrich (Theodor) 1917–85, German novelist and short-story writer: Nobel Prize 1972.

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boll ¹ British  

/ bəʊl /

noun

1. the fruit of such plants as flax and cotton, consisting of a rounded capsule containing the seeds

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Böll ² British  

/ bœl /

noun

1. Heinrich (ˈhaɪnrɪç) ( Theodor ). 1917–85, German novelist and short-story writer; his novels include Group Portrait with Lady (1971): Nobel prize for literature 1972

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boll Scientific  

/ bōl /

1. The seed-bearing capsule of certain plants, especially cotton and flax.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bolls
  plural

Etymology

Origin of boll

1400–50; late Middle English bolle, perhaps < Middle Dutch bolle ( Dutch bol ), though formally identical with bowl ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

boll Böll bolls

So the migration is as much about work and the boll weevil as it is about this notion of opportunity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2022

We assume he wove it himself out of whatever cotton-esque plants are flourishing after he killed exactly one-half the boll weevils on his planet of refuge.

From Slate ● Apr. 25, 2019

A cotton boll includes the hard, sharp-edged protective case inside of which the cotton develops.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 1, 2019

The cotton boll weevil is considered a major pest because of the damage it does to cotton plants.

From Textbooks ● Sep. 6, 2018

Fire ants have been observed picking larvae of the boll weevil off cotton.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

The second story, “The Long and Painful Death,” chronicles a female writer whose residency at the home of Heinrich Böll is soured by the arrival of a male academic.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2023

The Green Party's foundation, named after Nobel Prize-winning German novelist Heinrich Böll, is in more than 30 countries.

From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2021

The book received a critical boost from Nobel Prize-winning writer Heinrich Böll, who praised its “gloomy and quiet poetry,” while noting that he had to overcome a “threshold of disgust.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 2, 2019

Böll understood that for such a fight to be successfully won on a social level, it also had to be waged and won within families.

From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2017

Mentor published “New World Writing,” with work by writers like W. H. Auden, Jorge Luis Borges, and Heinrich Böll; Grove published Evergreen Review, a showcase of some of the most advanced writing in the world.

From The New Yorker ● Dec. 29, 2014

The cadenced distribution of cotton bolls across the picture just over their heads evokes musical notes written on a staff.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2021

Celina, who is African American, said Northam passed around raw cotton bolls and tobacco leaves for the whole tour group to touch.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 1, 2019

Her child cried, and it distracted her, slowed the accumulation of cotton bolls in her sack.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 28, 2017

An estimated $150 million worth of cotton has been lost as the storms ripped the bolls off plants and left white fiber strewn across fields.

From Reuters ● Aug. 29, 2017

On either side of me, the cotton fields are a glaring green, fat with bolls.

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett