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bole

UK/bəʊl/US/bol/
nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans written

Other forms: boles

A bole is the trunk of a tree. The bole of an oak, a mossy bole, a bole four feet across.

It means the trunk as timber or as a standing shape rather than the whole tree. A bole is measured for timber up to the first branch and no further.

Mebr1416 · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of bole

  1. 1nounboleThe trunk of a tree.C2

    “The bole was four feet across at the base.”

bole is a trunk.

Where it comes from

From Old Norse bolr, related to German Bohle, a plank.

  1. Old Norse

    bolr

  2. Middle English

    bole

  3. English, today

    bole

Built from

  • Bohle · German — plank

From Middle English bole, from Old Norse bolr, akin to Danish bul and German Bohle (“plank”). See also bulwark (“defensive wall”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

bole in the wild

  • However, bole in art is a good deal more red and less brown than the modern shade; it is often called Armenian bole.

    Bole (color)

  • Although bole also means the trunk of a tree, these words are simply homographs that do not share an etymological origin.

    Bole (color)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • bollard