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bill

[bil]

noun

a statement of money owed for goods or services supplied: He paid the hotel bill when he checked out.

a piece of paper money worth a specified amount: a ten-dollar bill.

Government. a form or draft of a proposed statute presented to a legislature, but not yet enacted or passed and made law.

bill of exchange.

a written or printed public notice or advertisement.

EXPAND

any written paper containing a statement of particulars: a bill of expenditures.

Law. a written statement, usually of complaint, presented to a court.

Slang. one hundred dollars: The job pays five bills a week.

playbill.

10.

entertainment scheduled for presentation; program: a good bill at the movies.

11.

Obsolete.

a promissory note.

a written and sealed document.

a written, formal petition.

COLLAPSE

verb (used with object)

12.

to charge for by bill; send a bill to: The store will bill me.

13.

to enter (charges) in a bill; make a bill or list of: to bill goods.

14.

to advertise by bill or public notice: A new actor was billed for this week.

15.

to schedule on a program: The management billed the play for two weeks.

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Bill is one of our favorite verbs.

So is subtilize. Does it mean:

to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.

LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

Idiom

16.

fill the bill, to fulfill the purpose or need well: As a sprightly situation comedy this show fills the bill.

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English bille < Anglo-French < Anglo-Latin billa for Late Latin bulla bull²

Related forms

bill·er, noun

Synonyms
1. reckoning, invoice, statement. 5. bulletin, handbill, poster, placard, announcement, circular, throwaway, flyer, broadside.

Example Sentences

Quinn's final position is likely to be crucial to the fate of the hotly debated bill.

The welfare bill is neither as objectionable as its critics depict it nor as uncontroversial as its supporters would have it.

Bill is relatively long, black, and distinctly decurved.

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Quinn's final position is likely to be crucial to the fate of the hotly debated bill.

The welfare bill is neither as objectionable as its critics depict it nor as uncontroversial as its supporters would have it.

Bill is relatively long, black, and distinctly decurved.

US health bill promises changes for biomedical researchers.

Online filing does not ask for an original bill of sale.

ChargeSmart acts as a middleman, accepting your credit or debit card to pay the mortgage or electricity bill.

The strong bill was useful for ripping leaves from plants.

Within the recently released climate bill are many lessons learned in these local laboratories.

However, state legislators this year will consider a bill to permit the collection of water for irrigation.

Opposition legislators rushed in but were too late to prevent their rivals from putting the bill to a vote.

In this posture, a platypus can remain submerged for a minute or two and employ its sensitive bill to find food.

And all from a simple bar chart-paired with a smiley face for energy-efficient behavior-on an electric bill.

Large black-and-white bird with long tail and dark bill.

Bill characterized by being nicely parallel sided, lacking an expansion at the gonydeal angle.

Nasal bristles on top of bill cover the basal third to half of the bill.

Juvenile male: similar to adult female, but it is generally browner overall and has a bill with less reddish coloration.

Repairing a single dripping faucet can put a dent in your water bill.

Note the different amount of streaking on the underparts and the color of the bill.

Stimulus bill includes funding to compare drugs and treatments.

The open bill and the rigid conformity of head, neck and overall body posture in each photo resemble a creation of taxidermy.

Two congressmen introduce a bill to criminalize the uploading of copyright works to peer-to-peer networks.

The bill would have punished employers who hire illegal immigrants and authorized the police to make arrests.

It has signalled that it will veto the quota bill rather than breach world trade law.

Mississippi lawmakers introduce bill that would ban restaurants from serving portly patrons.

To win support for a bill that would cap greenhouse gas emissions, lobbyists are.

Compared to a shiny, the brown-headed is more compact, with a shorter tail and bill.

Aaaand here comes bill once again confusing weather with climate.

Light gray, with dark eye and long, sharply pointed bill.

The article states that the bill falls short in reducing costs, not that it fails in every way.

But the enormous bill came about as a result of bad advice-a fact often omitted in follow-ups to the original article.

Small though heavy bill with a straight culmen that is sharply pointed.

Anyone who has had a major medical expense knows how overwhelming the hospital bill can be.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

noun

the parts of a bird's jaws that are covered with a horny or leathery sheath; beak.

the visor of a cap or other head covering.

a beaklike promontory or headland.

verb (used without object)

to join bills or beaks, as doves.

Idiom

bill and coo, to kiss or fondle and whisper endearments, as lovers: My sister and her boyfriend were billing and cooing on the front porch.

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English bile, bille, Old English bile beak, trunk; akin to bill³

noun

a medieval shafted weapon having at its head a hooklike cutting blade with a beak at the back.

Also called billman. a person armed with a bill.

Also called billhook. a sharp, hooked instrument used for pruning, cutting, etc.

Also called pea. Nautical. the extremity of a fluke of an anchor.

Origin:
before 1000; Middle English bil, Old English bill sword; cognate with Old High German bil pickax

noun British Dialect.

the cry of the bittern.

Origin:
1780–90; akin to bell², bellow

noun

a male given name, form of William.

noun

William Henry (Bill

), born 1937, U.S. comedian and actor.

Link To bill

Collins

World English Dictionary

bill¹ (bɪl)

—n
1.	money owed for goods or services supplied: an electricity bill
2.	a written or printed account or statement of money owed
3.	chiefly (Brit) Usual US and Canadian word: check such an account for food and drink in a restaurant, hotel, etc
4.	any printed or written list of items, events, etc, such as a theatre programme: who's on the bill tonight?
5.	informal fit the bill, fill the bill to serve or perform adequately
6.	a statute in draft, before it becomes law
7.	a printed notice or advertisement; poster
8.	(US), (Canadian) a piece of paper money; note
9.	an obsolete name for promissory note
10.	law See bill of indictment
11.	See bill of exchange
12.	See bill of fare
13.	archaic any document

—vb
14.	to send or present an account for payment to (a person)
15.	to enter (items, goods, etc) on an account or statement
16.	to advertise by posters
17.	to schedule as a future programme: the play is billed for next week

[C14: from Anglo-Latin billa, alteration of Late Latin bulla document, bull³]

bill² (bɪl)

—n
1.	the mouthpart of a bird, consisting of projecting jaws covered with a horny sheath; beak. It varies in shape and size according to the type of food eaten and may also be used as a weapon
2.	any beaklike mouthpart in other animals
3.	a narrow promontory: Portland Bill
4.	nautical the pointed tip of the fluke of an anchor

—vb
5.	(of birds, esp doves) to touch bills together
6.	(of lovers) to kiss and whisper amorously

[Old English bile; related to billbill³]

bill³ (bɪl)

—n
1.	a pike or halberd with a narrow hooked blade
2.	short for billhook

[Old English bill sword, related to Old Norse bīldr instrument used in blood-letting, Old High German bil pickaxe]

bill⁴ (bɪl)

—n
	ornithol another word for boom

[C18: from dialect beelbell² (vb)]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

bill

"written statement," mid-14c., from Anglo-L. billa "list," from M.L. bulla "decree, seal, sealed document," in classical L. "bubble, boss, stud, amulet for the neck" (hence "seal;" see bull (2)). Sense of "account, invoice" first recorded c.1400; that of "order to pay" (technically

EXPAND

bill of exchange) is from 1570s; that of "paper money" is from 1660s. Meaning "draft of an act of Parliament" is from 1510s. The verb meaning "to send someone a bill of charge" is from 1867.

bill

"bird's beak," O.E., related to bill, a poetic word for "a kind of sword" (especially one with a hooked blade), from a common Germanic word for cutting or chopping weapons (cf. O.H.G. bihal, O.N. bilda "hatchet," O.S. bil "sword"), from PIE base *bheie- "to cut, to strike." Used also in M.E. of beak-like

projections of land.

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American Heritage

Idioms & Phrases

bill

see clean bill of health; fill the bill; foot the bill; sell a bill of goods.