boll

Everyday

The round seed pod of the cotton plant (or flax plant) that opens to show the fluffy cotton fibres inside. tree →

In the lessons

In science and geography lessons, it explains where cotton comes from: the boll bursts open and the white fibres are picked and spun into thread. In history, cotton picking links to the story of slavery in the American South. The «boll weevil» is a beetle that eats cotton bolls.

Examples

• The cotton boll split open, showing white fluff. tree →
• Workers picked the cotton from the bolls. tree →
• The boll weevil damaged the cotton crop. tree →
• Each boll holds seeds wrapped in soft fibres. tree →
• We looked at a dried cotton boll in class. tree →
• The field was full of bursting bolls. tree →

Note

Countable: a boll, bolls. Homophone trap: «boll» sounds like «bowl» (a dish) and «bole» (a tree trunk). Not the same as «ball».