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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

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Etymology

Origin of boll

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

boll Böll bolls

With the boll weevil finishing off King Cotton, paper producers’ “plant ’em thick, cut ’em quick” approach spread.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

He also spent time in San Francisco, where he made a living drawing boll weevils for pesticide ads, before moving to New York.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 18, 2022

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

Zach said the farmers had planted and harvested their cotton early this year because of the boll weevil.

From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

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

I like Katharina Blum, the person of interest in “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum,” by Heinrich Böll.

From New York Times ● Sep. 5, 2019

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

Di Benedetto was released in 1977, thanks to the intercession of the renowned Argentinean writer Ernesto Sábato and of the Nobel laureate Heinrich Böll, who wrote to the head of the military government.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 15, 2017

Souloukna Mourga plodded through his flooded millet and cotton field in northern Cameroon and uprooted soggy stems that had a few bolls on them.

From Reuters ● Nov. 10, 2022

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

Cotton picking occurred as many as seven times a season as the plant grew and continued to produce bolls through the fall and early winter.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 30, 2014

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

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

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