poll parrot

noun, verb — 4 senses

poll parrot

noun

1

Dated A tame parrot.

Old Marster had a poll parrot, and this poll parrot would watch Jim and tell his Marster what Jim would do.2015, Richard M. Dorson, American Negro Folktales, page 121:

2

Archaic, Slang A talkative, gossiping woman.

It was on the tip of her tongue to call her a poll parrot (Mrs. Kingdom had said nothing but 'dear me' repeatedly and freezingly). She was a free-spoken woman as a rule, and it was terrible to have to sit still and waste all the good things she could have said to her […]1902, Country Life, volume 11, page 636:

poll parrot

verb

1

Dated To speak, repeat, or imitate something like a parrot.

2

Dated To chatter like a parrot.

'What are you Poll Parroting at now? Ain't you got nothing to do but fold your arms and stand a Poll Parroting all night?'1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, chapter XII, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC:

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