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Pill
Definitions
- 1 A village in Pill and Easton-in-Gordano parish, North Somerset district, Somerset, England (OS grid ref ST5275).
- 2 A municipality of Tyrol, Austria.
- 3 A surname.
- 1 A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication. broadly
"Take two pills every hour in the apyrexia of intermittent fever, until eight are taken."
- 2 The peel or skin. obsolete
"Some be covered with crusts or hard pills, as the locust"
- 3 An inlet on the coast; a small tidal pool or bay. Pill can occur in the name of such an inlet. UK, regional
"Portishead, lying west-north-west of Bristol, on the Severn, had a small port from medieval times on its pill, or inlet, and began to develop as a seaside resort early in the nineteenth century, when it was served by steam packets from Bristol."
- 4 a dose of medicine in the form of a small pellet wordnet
- 5 A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.; Such an object that is of solid constitution (usually of compressed, bonded powder) rather than a capsule (with a shell containing loose powder or liquid). broadly
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- 6 something that resembles a tablet of medicine in shape or size wordnet
- 7 Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill. definite, informal, uncountable
"Jane went on the pill when she left for college."
- 8 a contraceptive in the form of a pill containing estrogen and progestin to inhibit ovulation and so prevent conception wordnet
- 9 Something offensive, unpleasant or nauseous which must be accepted or endured.
""It's a sad unpalatable truth," said Mr. Pembroke, thinking that the despondency might be personal, "but one must accept it. My sister and Gerald, I am thankful to say, have accepted it, so naturally it has been a little pill.""
- 10 something unpleasant or offensive that must be tolerated or endured wordnet
- 11 A contemptible, annoying, or unpleasant person. slang
"You see, he's egging Phyllis on to marry Wilbert Cream. [...] And when a man like that eggs, something has to give, especially when the girl's a pill like Phyllis, who always does what Daddy tells her."
- 12 a unpleasant or tiresome person wordnet
- 13 A comical or entertaining person. slang
- 14 A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibers formed on the surface of a textile fabric by rubbing.
"One sleeve, threadbare and loaded with what my mother called “sweater pills,” hung halfway to the floor."
- 15 A baseball. slang
""Strike two!" bawled the umpire. I threw the pill back to Tom with a heart which drummed above the noise of the rooters along the side lines."
- 16 A bullet (projectile). slang
- 17 A rounded rectangle containing a brief text caption indicating the tag or category that an item belongs to.
- 1 Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber. intransitive
"This sweater is already pilled: it fuzzed after the very first wash."
- 2 To peel; to remove the outer layer of hair, skin, or bark. obsolete
- 3 To form into the shape of a pill.
"Pilling is a skill rarely used by modern pharmacists."
- 4 To peel; to make by removing the skin.
"[Jacob] pilled white streaks[…]in the rods."
- 5 To medicate with pills; to administer pills to. transitive
"She pills herself with all sorts of herbal medicines."
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- 6 To be peeled; to peel off in flakes.
- 7 To persuade or convince someone of something. Internet, transitive
- 8 To pillage; to despoil or impoverish. obsolete
"So syr Lucan departed for he was greuously wounded in many places And so as he yede he sawe and herkened by the mone lyght how that pyllars and robbers were comen in to the felde To pylle and robbe many a ful noble knyghte of brochys and bedys of many a good rynge & of many a ryche Iewel / and who that were not deed al oute"
- 9 To blackball (a potential club member). UK, dated, slang, transitive
"“I pilled him because he is a liar,” said Thackeray. “He calls himself 'ill' when he isn't.”"
Etymology
* From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula. * (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill.
* From Middle English pille (also pillem), a borrowing from Middle Low German pille or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pila, pilula. * (persuade or convince): Generalized from red pill.
From Middle English pillen, pilen, from Old English pilian (“to peel”), from Latin pilō (“depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). Doublet of peel.
From Middle English pillen, pilen, from Old English pilian (“to peel”), from Latin pilō (“depilate”), from pilus (“hair”). Doublet of peel.
From Middle English *pill, *pyll, from Old English pyll (“a pool, pill”), from Proto-Germanic *pullijaz (“small pool, ditch, creek”), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *pullaz (“pool, stream”), from Proto-Indo-European *bl̥nos (“bog, marsh”). Cognate with Old English pull (“pool, creek”), Scots poll (“slow moving stream, creek, inlet”), Icelandic pollur (“pond, pool, puddle”). More at pool.
From the common Welsh placename element Pil meaning "tidal pool, harbor," itself borrowed from English pill (“tidal creek”).
English surname, both from the noun pill (originally "little ball") and from sense 3 (“inlet, tidal creek”).
See also for "pill"
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