Prill

//pɹɪl// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    a rill, a small stream

    "Each silver Prill gliding on golden Sand"

  2. 2
    a pellet, a granule, a small bead

    "Prills are free-flowing pellets developed for fertilizer as a coarse product with little setting tendency that can be spread easily and smoothly."

  3. 3
    The brill, a kind of flatfish.
  4. 4
    a spinning top obsolete
  5. 5
    rich copper ore remaining after removal of low-grade material; a droplet of copper suspended in molten slag
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    A nugget of virgin metal.
  2. 7
    The button of metal from an assay.
Verb
  1. 1
    to flow, spurt

    "the Thames, prillingfrom her naked breast"

  2. 2
    to produce pellets by forming a molten substance into droplets which solidify while falling
  3. 3
    To grow sour. UK, dialectal, intransitive
  4. 4
    To become tipsy. UK, dialectal, intransitive
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
pelletizepelletize

Example

More examples

"the Thames, prillingfrom her naked breast"

Etymology

Etymology 1

A variant of purl, 17th century.

Etymology 2

Unknown. OED mentions Cornish pryl (“sheep-droppings”) as a likely loan from English.

Related phrases

prill sulfur

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