Till Definition | Definition of Till at Dictionary.com

till

1 [til]

–preposition

1.	up to the time of; until: to fight till death.

2.	before (used in negative constructions): He did not come till today.

3.	near or at a specified time: till evening.

4.	Chiefly Midland, Southern, and Western U.S. before; to: It's ten till four on my watch.

Scot. and North England.

to.

unto.

–conjunction

6.	to the time that or when; until.

7.	before (used in negative constructions).

Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE (north) til < ON til to, akin to OE till station, G Ziel goal. See till ²

Usage note:
Till¹ and until are both old in the language and are interchangeable as both prepositions and conjunctions: It rained till (or until) nearly midnight. The savannah remained brown and lifeless until (or till) the rains began. Till is not a shortened form of until and is not spelled 'till. 'Til is usually considered a spelling error, though widely used in advertising: Open 'til ten.

till

2 [til]

–verb (used with object)

1.	to labor, as by plowing or harrowing, upon (land) for the raising of crops; cultivate.

to plow.

–verb (used without object)

3.	to cultivate the soil.

Origin:
bef. 900; ME tilen, OE tilian to strive after, get, till; c. D telen to breed, cultivate, G zielen to aim at

till

3 [til]

–noun

1.	a drawer, box, or the like, as in a shop or bank, in which money is kept.

2.	a drawer, tray, or the like, as in a cabinet or chest, for keeping valuables.

3.	an arrangement of drawers or pigeonholes, as on a desk top.

Origin:
1425–75; late ME tylle, n. use of tylle to draw, OE -tyllan (in fortyllan to seduce); akin to L dolus trick, Gk dólos bait (for fish), any cunning contrivance, treachery

till

4 [til]

–noun

1.	Geology. glacial drift consisting of an unassorted mixture of clay, sand, gravel, and boulders.

2.	a stiff clay.

Origin:
1665–75; orig. uncert.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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till¹ (tĭl)

tr.v. tilled, till·ing, tills
To prepare (land) for the raising of crops, as by plowing and harrowing; cultivate.

[Middle English tilen, from Old English tilian.]
till'a·ble adj.

till² (tĭl)

prep. Until.
conj. Until.

[Middle English, from Old English til, from Old Norse.]

Usage Note: Till and until are generally interchangeable in both writing and speech, though as the first word in a sentence until is usually preferred: Until you get that paper written, don't even think about going to the movies. · Till is actually the older word, with until having been formed by the addition to it of the prefix un-, meaning "up to." In the 18th century the spelling 'till became fashionable, as if till were a shortened form of until. Although 'till is now nonstandard, 'til is sometimes used in this way and is considered acceptable, though it is etymologically incorrect.

till³ (tĭl)

A drawer, small chest, or compartment for money, as in a store.
A supply of money; a purse.

[Middle English tille.]

till⁴ (tĭl)

n. Glacial drift composed of an unconsolidated, heterogeneous mixture of clay, sand, pebbles, cobbles, and boulders.

[Origin unknown.]

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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Till

Till\, n. [Abbrev. from lentil.] A vetch; a tare. [Prov. Eng.]

Till

Till\, n. [Properly, a drawer, from OE. tillen to draw. See Tiller the lever of a rudder.] A drawer. Specifically: (a) A tray or drawer in a chest. (b) A money drawer in a shop or store.

Till alarm, a device for sounding an alarm when a money drawer is opened or tampered with.

Till

Till\, n. 1. (Geol.) A deposit of clay, sand, and gravel, without lamination, formed in a glacier valley by means of the waters derived from the melting glaciers; -- sometimes applied to alluvium of an upper river terrace, when not laminated, and appearing as if formed in the same manner.

2. A kind of coarse, obdurate land. --Loudon.

Till

Till\, prep. [OE. til, Icel. til; akin to Dan. til, Sw. till, OFries. til, also to AS. til good, excellent, G. ziel end, limit, object, OHG. zil, Goth. tils, gatils, fit, convenient, and E. till to cultivate. See Till, v. t.] To; unto; up to; as far as; until; -- now used only in respect to time, but formerly, also, of place, degree, etc., and still so used in Scotland and in parts of England and Ireland; as, I worked till four o'clock; I will wait till next week.

He . . . came till an house. --Chaucer.

Women, up till this Cramped under worse than South-sea-isle taboo. --Tennyson.

Similar sentiments will recur to every one familiar with his writings -- all through them till the very end. --Prof. Wilson.

Till now, to the present time.

Till then, to that time.

Till

Till\, conj. As far as; up to the place or degree that; especially, up to the time that; that is, to the time specified in the sentence or clause following; until.

And said unto them, Occupy till I come. --Luke xix. 13.

Mediate so long till you make some act of prayer to God. --Jer. Taylor.

There was no outbreak till the regiment arrived. --Macaulay.

Note: This use may be explained by supposing an ellipsis of when, or the time when, the proper conjunction or conjunctive adverb begin when.

Till

Till\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tilled; p. pr. & vb. n. Tilling.] [OE. tilen, tilien, AS. tilian, teolian, to aim, strive for, till; akin to OS. tilian to get, D. telen to propagate, G. zielen to aim, ziel an end, object, and perhaps also to E. tide, time, from the idea of something fixed or definite. Cf. Teal, Till, prep..]

1. To plow and prepare for seed, and to sow, dress, raise crops from, etc., to cultivate; as, to till the earth, a field, a farm.

No field nolde [would not] tilye. --P. Plowman.

the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. --Gen. iii. 23.

2. To prepare; to get. [Obs.] --W. Browne.

Till

Till\, v. i. To cultivate land. --Piers Plowman.

Language Translation for : till

Spanish: hasta (que),

German: bis,

Japanese: ～まで

More Translations »

till (prep.)

"until," O.E. til (Northumbrian), from O.N. til "to, until," from P.Gmc. *tilan (cf. Dan. til, O.Fris. til "to, till," Goth. tils "convenient," Ger. Ziel "limit, end, goal"). A common preposition in Scand., probably originally the accusative case of a noun now lost except for Icelandic tili "scope," the noun used to express aim, direction, purpose (e.g. aldrtili "death," lit. "end of life"). Also cf. Ger. Ziel "end, limit, point aimed at, goal," and compare till (v.).

till (v.)

"cultivate (land)" (c.1205), "plow" (1377), from O.E. tilian "tend, work at, get by labor," originally "strive after," related to till "fixed point, goal," and til "good, suitable," from P.Gmc. *tilojanan (cf. O.Fris. tilia "to get, cultivate," O.S. tilian "to obtain," M.Du., Du. telen "to breed, raise, cultivate, cause," O.H.G. zilon "to strive," Ger. zielen "to aim, strive"), from source of till (prep.).

till (n.)

"cashbox," 1452, from Anglo-Fr. tylle "compartment," O.Fr. tille "compartment, shelter on a ship," probably from O.N. þilja "plank, floorboard," from P.Gmc. *theljon. The other theory is that the word is from M.E. tillen "to draw," from O.E. -tyllan (see toll (v.)), with a sense evolution as in drawer (see draw).

till (tĭl) Pronunciation Key
An unstratified, unconsolidated mass of boulders, pebbles, sand, and mud deposited by the movement or melting of a glacier. The size and shape of the sediments that constitute till vary widely.

till

In addition to the subsequent idioms beginning with till, also see hand in the till; until.

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