Pill

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɪl

From Middle Low German or Middle Dutch pille (whence Dutch pil), probably from Latin pilula.

Full definition of pill

Noun

1. A small, usually cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
• 1864, Benjamin Ellis, The Medical Formulary http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC14843090&id=pHoMvHRmrlIC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=%22take+two+pills%22&as_brr=1Take two pills every hour in the apyrexia of intermittent fever, until eight are taken.
2. (contraceptive) (informal, uncountable, definite, i.e. used with "the") Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill.Jane went on the pill when she left for college.She got pregnant one month after going off the pill.
• 1986, Jurriaan Plesman, Getting Off the Hook: Treatment of Drug Addiction and Social Disorders Through Body and Mind:Many specialists are requesting that this vitamin be included in all contraceptive pills, as women on the pill have a tendency to be depressed.
3. (slang) A comical or entertaining person.
4. (slang) A contemptible, annoying, or unpleasant person.
• 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, You see, he's egging Phyllis on to marry Wilbert Cream. ... And when a man like that eggs, something has to give, especially when the girl's a pill like Phyllis, who always does what Daddy tells her.
• 2000, Susan Isaacs, Shining Through http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0061030155&id=6_1FJWFEYGoC&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=%22a+real+pill%22&sig=RCUR5O3MhNXeq8rMOnx9-LR5MfoInstead, I saw a woman in her mid-fifties, who was a real pill; while all the others had managed a decent “So pleased,” or even a plain “Hello,” Ginger just inclined her head, as if she was doing a Queen Mary imitation.
5. (informal) A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibres formed on the surface of a textile by rubbing.
• 1999, Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0060987561&id=LOYeA9GmrEwC&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=%22sweater+pills%22&sig=U11GOkTpfHlqyGyIdk7ZNZ0GNuIOne sleeve, threadbare and loaded with what my mother called “sweater pills,” hung halfway to the floor.
6. (archaic, baseball slang) A baseball.
• 2002, John Klima, Pitched Battle: 35 of Baseball's Greatest Duels from the Mound http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0786412038&id=G126RsLD3MsC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=%22threw+the+pill%22&sig=NmyoxWN_bP5AHc9imVPMTxY7lvwMr. Fisher contributed to the Sox effort when he threw the pill past second baseman Rath after Felsch hit him a comebacker.
7. (firearms) (informal) a bullet (projectile)

Synonyms

• (small object for swallowing) tablet

Derived terms

Verb

1. (intransitive, textiles) Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber.
• 1997, Jo Sharp, Knitted Sweater Style: Inspirations in Color http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1561581895&id=l5h-cGU5HUYC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=sweater+pilling&sig=6gfLWBL1QHVQZmbSYhJ4oipm8KcDuring processing, inferior short fibers (which can cause pilling and itching) are removed to enhance the natural softness of the yarn and to improve its wash-and-wear performance.
2. To form into the shape of a pill.Pilling is a skill rarely used by modern pharmacists.
3. To medicate with pills.She pills herself with all sorts of herbal medicines.

From Latin pilō ("depilate"), from pilus ("hair").

Verb

1. (obsolete) To peel; to remove the outer layer of hair, skin, or bark.
2. To peel; to make by removing the skin.
• Bible, Genesis xxx. 37Jacob pilled white streaks ... in the rods.
3. To be peeled; to peel off in flakes.
4. (obsolete) To pillage; to despoil or impoverish.
• 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XXI:he saw and harkened by the moonelyght how that pyllours and robbers were com into the fylde to pylle and to robbe many a full noble knyght ...

Noun

1. The peel or skin.
• HollandSome be covered over with crusts, or hard pills, as the locusts.

From Middle English *pill, *pyll, from Old English pyll ("a pool, pill"), from Proto-Germanic *pullijaz ("small pool, ditch, creek"), diminutive of Proto-Germanic *pullaz ("pool, stream"), from Proto-Indo-European *bale- ("bog, marsh"). Cognate with Old English pull ("pool, creek"), Scots poll ("slow moving stream, creek, inlet"), Icelandic pollur ("pond, pool, puddle"). More at pool.

Noun

1. (now UK regional) An inlet on the coast; a small tidal pool or bay.----