Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US campus) to work hard.

1856		B.H. Hall College Words (rev. edn) 356: pole [...] to study hard, e.g. to pole out the lesson. To pole on a composition, to take pains with it.
1895		J.L. Williams Princeton Stories 39: He proposes that we pole the Greek.
1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 50: pole, poll, v. To prepare a lesson by hard study; sometimes used with ‘out’, as ‘to pole out’.
1915		E. Poole Harbor (2005) 54: At first I honestly tried to ‘pole,’ to find whether, after all, I couldn’t break through the hard dry crust of books and lectures down into what I called ‘the real stuff’.

2. (Aus.) to arrive, to appear [SE pole, the shaft fitted to a vehicle to permit the harnessing of draft animals; thus the image of movement].

1903

Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 31/1: [W]e sits down in the pub. for dinner – me an’ Johno an’ his missus – when in poles an ole duchess wif her fightin’ face on.

3. (Aus./NZ) to steal.

1906		O.C. Malvery Soul Market 39: ‘You can do the nobbing,’ he continued, and then put a small box into my hand. [...] ‘Slip round, my girl, and “nob” ’em, and mind yer bring it all to light, and no weeding, no poling, mind yer.’.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 85: I’ve tried to teach ’em about the cattle-market — so’s they won’t think the Government’s my father and keeps me for love, [...] so’s they won’t pole and waste.
1938		Press (Canterbury) 2 Apr. 18: ‘To clout,’ ‘to pole,’ ‘to fend off’ are to steal.
1964		J.A. Lee Shiner Slattery 140: Did you ever hear of a man called Arthur Beaumont who poled three hundred thousand pounds?
1988		(ref. to 1930s) McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 86/1: pole to steal, c.1930, Australia later, but earlier Australian meaning to scrounge.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 160: pole To steal. [...] ANZ early C20.

4. in sexual senses [pole n.].

5. (orig. US prison) to stab.

1994		P. Baker Blood Posse 327: I poled him a few more times, not wanting to kill him just damage him a little.
2013		Stickz & M. Dargg ‘It’s Cracking’ 🎵 A nigga act up and a nigga get poled.

6. (US) to subject to problems [var. on shaft v. (2)].

2005

R. Cea No Lights, No Sirens 161: Last thing I want is to see a sharp young guy like yourself getting poled by some defense attorney and his drug-dealing client.