Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various soft fine clays, especially a reddish-brown variety used as a pigment.
  • noun A moderate reddish brown.
  • noun The trunk of a tree.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The body or stem of a tree.
  • noun Anything of cylindrical shape; a roll; a pillar: as, boles of stone.
  • noun A small boat suited for a rough sea.
  • noun Another spelling of boll.
  • noun A general term including certain compact, amorphous, soft, more or less brittle, unctuous clays, having a conchoidal fracture and greasy luster, and varying in color from yellow, red, or brown to nearly black.
  • noun A bolus; a dose.
  • noun In medieval and early Renaissance art, an earthy paste added over gesso as a ground for tempera painting and gilding.
  • noun A small square recess or cavity in a wall; also, a window or opening in the wall of a house, usually with a wooden shutter instead of glass.
  • noun A name given in the north of England to a place where lead was anciently smelted.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The trunk or stem of a tree, or that which is like it.
  • noun Scot. An aperture, with a wooden shutter, in the wall of a house, for giving, occasionally, air or light; also, a small closet.
  • noun A measure. See boll, n., 2.
  • noun Any one of several varieties of friable earthy clay, usually colored more or less strongly red by oxide of iron, and used to color and adulterate various substances. It was formerly used in medicine. It is composed essentially of hydrous silicates of alumina, or more rarely of magnesia. See clay, and terra alba.
  • noun A bolus; a dose.
  • noun See under Armenian.
  • noun [Obs.] Armenian bole.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The trunk or stem of a tree.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the main stem of a tree; usually covered with bark; the bole is usually the part that is commercially useful for lumber
  • noun a soft oily clay used as a pigment (especially a reddish brown pigment)
  • noun a Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria and closely related to Hausa

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Medieval Latin bōlus; see bolus.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old Norse bolr; see bhel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old Norse bolr, akin to Danish bul and German Bohle ("plank"). See also bulwark ("defensive wall").

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Examples

  • The tree is usually medium sized, growing in Australia up to 25 m tall; the bole is short, 4-5 m high (and to IS m in rare cases), and often crooked or twisted.

    Chapter 6 1983

  • At the sound of the report, the Kro-lu leaped back and raised their weapons; but as I was smiling, they took heart and lowered them again, following my eyes to the tree; the shaft of their chief was gone, and through the bole was a little round hole marking the path of my bullet.

    The People That Time Forgot Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912

  • In the wall of the dark passage leading from the outer door into the room was a recess where a pan and pitcher of water always stood wedded, as it were, and a little hole, known as the "bole," in the wall opposite the fire-place contained Cree's library.

    Auld Licht Idyls 1898

  • In the wall of the dark passage leading from the outer door into the room was a recess where a pan and pitcher of water always stood wedded, as it were, and a little hole, known as the "bole," in the wall opposite the fireplace contained Cree's library.

    Auld Licht Idylls 1898

  • Had it not been for the impatience of the precentor and the grumbling of the mourners outside, there is no saying when the remains would have been lifted through the "bole," or little window.

    Auld Licht Idyls 1898

  • He gets bored in a shooting house but he loves tromping into the woods, settling down next to the bole of a big tree and waiting the five minutes it takes for the squirrel that hid from you when you walked in to lose his wits and make a run for it.

    What Happened to Squirrel Hunting? 2009

  • We crabbed around a gum tree bole and hurried as fast as we could without splashing too loudly.

    Fire The Sky W. Michael Gear 2011

  • Two charr chopped at a third ogre like woodsmen working a great bole.

    GuildWars Edge of Destiny J. Robert King 2011

  • We also have some scratchin trees, one of them being literally a tree, a thin birch bole.

    Keep Your Cats From Destroying Your Furniture | Lifehacker Australia 2009

  • He gets bored in a shooting house but he loves tromping into the woods, settling down next to the bole of a big tree and waiting the five minutes it takes for the squirrel that hid from you when you walked in to lose his wits and make a run for it.

    What Happened to Squirrel Hunting? 2009

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  • From "Au Tombeau de Charles Fourier" by Guy Davenport

    January 19, 2010