pill

1 [pil]
noun
1.
a small globular or rounded mass of medicinal substance, usually covered with a hard coating, that is to be swallowed whole.
2.
something unpleasant that has to be accepted or endured: Ingratitude is a bitter pill.
3.
Slang. a tiresomely disagreeable person.
4.
Sports Slang. a ball, especially a baseball or golf ball.
5.
the pill, birth-control pill.
6.
pills, British Slang. billiards.
verb (used with object)
7.
to dose with pills.
8.
to form or make into pills.
9.
Slang. to blackball.
00:10
Pill is one of our favorite verbs.
So is yaff. Does it mean:
to bark; yelp.
to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.
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verb (used without object)
10.
to form into small, pill-like balls, as the fuzz on a wool sweater.
Idioms
11.
Take a chill pill!, Disparaging Slang. chill pill ( def 2 ).
Origin:
1375–1425; late Middle English pille < Middle Low German, Middle Dutch pille ≪ Latin pilula, diminutive of pila ball; see -ule

Dictionary.com Unabridged

pill

2 [pil]
verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
1.
British Dialect. to peel.
2.
Obsolete. to become or cause to become bald.
Origin:
before 1100; Middle English pilen, Old English pilian to skin, peel < Latin pilāre to strip (said of hair). See pile3

pill

3 [pil]
verb (used with object) Archaic.
to rob, plunder, or pillage.
Origin:
1150–1200; Middle English; probably conflation of pill2 with Middle French piller (see pillage)

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
pill1 (pɪl) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
1.  a small spherical or ovoid mass of a medicinal substance, intended to be swallowed whole
2.  informal (sometimes capital) the pill an oral contraceptive
3.  something unpleasant that must be endured (esp in the phrase bitter pill to swallow)
4.  slang a ball or disc
5.  a small ball of matted fibres that forms on the surface of a fabric through rubbing
6.  slang an unpleasant or boring person
 
—vb
7.  (tr) to give pills to
8.  (tr) to make pills of
9.  (intr)
 a.  to form into small balls
 b.  (of a fabric) to form small balls of fibre on its surface through rubbing
10.  slang (tr) to blackball
 
[C15: from Middle Flemish pille, from Latin pilula a little ball, from pila ball]

pill2 (pɪl) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—vb
1.  archaic, dialect or to peel or skin (something)
2.  archaic to pillage or plunder (a place)
3.  obsolete to make or become bald
 
[Old English pilian, from Latin pilāre to strip]

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

pill
1484, from M.Du. or M.L.G. pille, from L. pilula "pill," lit. "little ball," dim. of pila "ball." Slang meaning "boring person" is recorded from 1871. The pill "contraceptive pill" is from 1957. Pill-box "box for holding pills" is first attested 1730; as a small round concrete machine gun nest, it came
into use in WWI. As a type of hat, attested from 1958.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

pill (pĭl)
n.

  1. A small pellet or tablet of medicine, often coated, taken by swallowing whole or by chewing.

  2. An oral contraceptive.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary

pill definition


  1. n.
    the pilla birth control pill. (Always with the in this sense.) : The pill has really changed my life.
  2. n.
    a tobacco cigarette; a marijuana cigarette. : I'll trade you a pill for a match.
  3. n.
    a drug in capsule form. : The doctor prescribed these pills.
  4. n.
    a football. : Fred kicked the pill through the goal and won the game.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

pill

see bitter pill to swallow; sugar the pill.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Example sentences
The poem was intended for the king's perusal, and thus the pill had to be
  gilded in order that it might be accepted.
From the point of view of a drug, it's a long trip from the pill bottle to an
  ache or the site of an infection.
But we're not above saying that taking a pill can sometimes be a great idea.
In some ways their success was an even more bitter pill to swallow.
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