Pilly

adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Pill. informal

    "Billy Willy is a dilly, He took a pilly And turned silly"

  2. 2
    pillow Scotland

    "Kattie! There's another coming. Another mattress and a pilly. Where can we put him?"

  3. 3
    A pillhead. informal
  4. 4
    The lilly-pilly. informal

    "Withdrawing the smaller blade from his belt, Speezer rolled a pilly pod from the tray and sliced it open With his sharp knife."

  5. 5
    Pilchard. informal

    "When buying pillies look for IQF fish."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    One who rides pillion. informal

    "I attended quite a few other social-group events, made new friends, registered with other motorcycle groups as a pillion, and got out on a few rides. I was really enjoying the riding but sometimes felt frustrated if nobody was available to take a 'pilly' out."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Covered in pills (particles created by mechanical wear).

    "After many washings, my favorite sweater is faded and pilly."

  2. 2
    Characterized by or involving many pills.

    "Paiuline Eichstadt spent a week at home womewhat indisposed with Eddie as doctor and nursemaid. A pilly and puny vacation he spent."

Example

More examples

"After many washings, my favorite sweater is faded and pilly."

Etymology

From pill + -y. In some cases, pill is a clipping of a longer word.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.