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Definition of pill - 14 dictionary results
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pill

1  [pil]
Use pill in a Sentence
–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, esp. 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.
–verb (used without object)
10. to form into small, pill-like balls, as the fuzz on a wool sweater.
Origin:
1375–1425; late ME pille < MLG, MD pille ≪ L pilula, dim. of pila ball; see -ule
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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:
bef. 1100; ME pilen, OE pilian to skin, peel < L pilāre to strip (said of hair). See pile 3

pill

3  [pil]
–verb (used with object) Archaic.
to rob, plunder, or pillage.
Origin:
1150–1200; ME; prob. conflation of pill 2 with MF piller (see pillage )
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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pill 1   (pĭl)   
n.  
  1. A small pellet or tablet of medicine, often coated, taken by swallowing whole or by chewing.
  2. Informal An oral contraceptive. Used with the.
  3. Slang Something, such as a baseball, that resembles a pellet of medicine.
  4. Something both distasteful and necessary.
  5. Slang An insipid or ill-natured person.
v.   pilled, pil·ling, pills

v.   tr.
  1. To dose with pills.
  2. To make into pills.
  3. Slang To blackball.
v.   intr.
To form small balls resembling pills: a sweater that pills.

[Middle English pille, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German pille and Old French pile, all from Latin pilula, diminutive of pila, ball.]
pill 2   (pĭl)   
v.   pilled, pil·ling, pills

v.   intr. Chiefly British
To come off, as in flakes or scales.
v.   tr. Archaic
To subject to extortion.

[Middle English pillen, to plunder, peel, from Old English pilian; see peel1 and from Old French piller, to plunder; see pillage.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Pill

Pill\, n. [Cf. Peel skin, or Pillion.] The peel or skin. [Obs.] "Some be covered over with crusts, or hard pills, as the locusts." --Holland.

Pill

Pill\, v. i. To be peeled; to peel off in flakes.

Pill

Pill\, v. t. [Cf. L. pilare to deprive of hair, and E. pill, n. (above).]

1. To deprive of hair; to make bald. [Obs.]

2. To peel; to make by removing the skin.

[Jacob] pilled white streaks . . . in the rods. --Gen. xxx. 37.

Pill

Pill\, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Pilled; p. pr. & vb. n. Pilling.] [F. piller, L. pilare; cf. It. pigliare to take. Cf. Peel to plunder.] To rob; to plunder; to pillage; to peel. See Peel, to plunder. [Obs.] --Spenser.

Pillers and robbers were come in to the field to pill and to rob. --Sir T. Malroy.

Pill

Pill\, n. [F. pilute, L. pilula a pill, little ball, dim. of L. pila a ball. Cf. Piles.]

1. A medicine in the form of a little ball, or small round mass, to be swallowed whole.

2. Figuratively, something offensive or nauseous which must be accepted or endured. --Udall.

Pill beetle (Zo["o]l.), any small beetle of the genus Byrrhus, having a rounded body, with the head concealed beneath the thorax.

Pill bug (Zo["o]l.), any terrestrial isopod of the genus Armadillo, having the habit of rolling itself into a ball when disturbed. Called also pill wood louse.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : pill
Spanish: píldora, pastilla,
German: die Pille,
Japanese: 錠剤
More Translations »

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, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: pill
Pronunciation: 'pil
Function: noun
1 : medicine in a small rounded mass to be swallowed whole
2 oftencapitalized : a birth control pill—usually used with the
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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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.
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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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