Rill
//ɹɪl// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A very small brook; a streamlet; a creek, rivulet.
"[N]or yet beside the rill / Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he"
- 2 a small channel (as one formed by soil erosion) wordnet
- 3 Alternative form of rille. alt-of, alternative
- 4 a small stream wordnet
Verb
- 1 To trickle, pour, or run like a small stream.
"And fainter, finer, trickle far To where the listening uplands are; To pause—then from his gurgling bill Let the warbled sweetness rill, And down the welkin, gushing free, Hark the molten melody;"
Example
More examples"[N]or yet beside the rill / Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he"
Etymology
From or akin to West Frisian ril (“rill; a narrow channel”), Dutch ril (“rill; gully; trench; watercourse”), German Low German Rille, Rill (“a small channel; brook; furrow”), German Rille (“a groove; furrow”).
Related phrases
More for "rill"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.