bole

tree trunk

Not to be confused with:

boll – seed pod of a plant, as flax or cotton

bowl – hemispherical vessel; a large wooden ball; a roll of the ball, as in bowling

bole¹

(bōl)

The trunk of a tree.

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

bole²

(bōl)

1. Any of various soft fine clays, especially a reddish-brown variety used as a pigment.

2. A moderate reddish brown.

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

bole adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bole

(bəʊl)

(Botany) the trunk of a tree

[C14: from Old Norse bolr; related to Middle High German bole plank]

bole

(bəʊl) or

bolus

1. (Dyeing) a reddish soft variety of clay used as a pigment

2. (Colours) a moderate reddish-brown colour

[C13: from Late Latin bōlus lump, from Greek bōlos]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

bole

(boʊl)

n.

the trunk of a tree.

[1275–1325; Middle English < Old Norse bolr]

bole

- Another name for the trunk of a tree.

See also related terms for trunk.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	bole - a soft oily clay used as a pigment (especially a reddish brown pigment) dirt, soil - the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock pigment - dry coloring material (especially a powder to be mixed with a liquid to produce paint, etc.)
	2.	bole - the main stem of a tree; usually covered with bark; the bole is usually the part that is commercially useful for lumber tree trunk, trunk tree - a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms stalk, stem - a slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ bark - tough protective covering of the woody stems and roots of trees and other woody plants
	3.	Bole - a Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria and closely related to Hausa Bolanci West Chadic - a group of Chadic languages spoken in northern Nigeria; Hausa in the most important member

Translations

tronco

bole

[bəʊl] N → tronco m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bole

n → Baumstamm m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

"Mother," said the child, "while you were talking with that lady in the bole, a big dog took a bite of my cake, and then I bit it also."

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What could have so suddenly transformed his matter-of-fact ascent of the giant bole to the swift and wary action of his detour among the branches?

Tarzan braced himself against the bole of the tree and leaned closer toward Sheeta.

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Tarzan put a broad shoulder beneath the bole of the tree, and as he did so his bare leg pressed against the cat's silken side, so close was the man to the great beast.

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I thought my quest had brought me into a strange old haunted forest, and that I had thrown myself down to rest at the gnarled mossy root of a great oak-tree, while all about me was nought but fantastic shapes and capricious groups of gold-green bole and bough, wondrous alleys ending in mysterious coverts, and green lanes of exquisite turf that seemed to have been laid down in expectation of some milk-white queen or goddess passing that way.

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Her neck came up strongly out of her shoulders, like the bole of a tree out of the turf.

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And, making a sign to me to deaden the sound of my steps, he led me across the path to the trunk of a tall beech tree, the white bole of which was visible in the darkness.

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Backing off fifteen or twenty feet from the bole of the tree beneath the branches of which Tarzan worked upon his rope, Gazan scampered quickly forward, scrambling nimbly upward to the lower limbs.

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Motioning Woola to remain quietly where he was, I crept forward to investigate, and from behind the bole of a great tree I saw a long line of the hideous green warriors of the dead sea bottoms hiding in the dense jungle beside the road.

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They lay piled up in stacks of mighty boles, and it was hard to believe that all this mass of dead and stripped trees had come out of the flanks of a slender, innocent-looking little barque with, as likely as not, a homely woman's name - Ellen this or Annie that - upon her fine bows.

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Down to the ground he came in the utter blackness of the close-set boles and the overhanging verdure of the jungle.

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The jungle undergrowth was scantier and the spaces between the boles of the forest trees more open.

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