Still

Pronunciation

• IPA: /stɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɪl

From Middle English stille ("motionless, stationary"), from Old English stille ("still, quiet, calm; without motion, at rest, not moving from a place, not disturbed; moving little or gently; silent; not loud; secret; unchanging, undisturbed, stable, fixed; not vehement, gentle"), from Proto-Germanic *stillijaz ("quiet, still"), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- ("to place, stell; fixed, motionless, still, stiff"). Cognate with Scots stil ("still"), West Frisian stil ("quiet, still"), Dutch stil ("quiet, silent, still"), Low German still ("quiet, still"), German still ("still, quiet, tranquil, silent"), Swedish stilla ("quiet, silent, peaceful"), Icelandic stilltur ("set, quiet, calm, still"). Related to stall.

Alternative forms

• stil
• stille, styll, stylle obsolete

Full definition of still

Adjective

1. Not moving; calm.Still waters run deep.
2. Not effervescing; not sparkling.still water; still wines
3. Uttering no sound; silent.
• AddisonThe sea that roared at thy command,
  At thy command was still.
4. (not comparable) Having the same stated quality continuously from a past time
• To follow the still President’s marching orders, all that Secretary Ronnie Puno has to do is to follow the road map laid out by Justice Azcuna in his “separate” opinion.
5. Comparatively quiet or silent; soft; gentle; low.
• Bible, 1 Kings xix. 12a still small voice
6. (obsolete) Constant; continual.
• ShakespeareBy still practice learn to know thy meaning.

Synonyms

• (not moving) fixed, stationary, unmoving

Derived terms

• stillness

Related terms

• be still my heart
• be still my beating heart
• still waters run deep

Adverb

1. (aspect) Up to a time, as in the preceding time.
• Francis BaconIt hath been anciently reported, and is still received.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 15, Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.
• Schuster Hepaticae V|viiHepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
• 2013-06-01, A better waterworks, An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
2. Is it still raining?   It was still raining five minutes ago.
3. (degree) To an even greater degree. Used to modify comparative adjectives or adverbs.
   Tom is tall; Dick is taller; Harry is still taller.
   ("still" and "taller" can easily swap places here)
• ShakespeareThe guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed.
4. (conjunctive) Nevertheless.
   I’m not hungry, but I’ll still manage to find room for dessert.
• MooreAs sunshine, broken in the rill,
  Though turned astray, is sunshine still.
5. (archaic, poetic) Always; invariably; constantly; continuously.
• 1609 William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida 5.2.201-202:Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion.
• AddisonThe desire of fame betrays an ambitious man into indecencies that lessen his reputation; he is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private.
• BoyleChemists would be rich if they could still do in great quantities what they have sometimes done in little.
6. (extensive) Even, yet.
• 2013, Sarah Glaz, Ode to Prime Numbers, Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.
7. Some dogs howl, more yelp, still more bark.

Synonyms

• (up to a time) yet
• (to an even greater degree) yet, even
• (nevertheless) nonetheless, though, yet

Noun

1. A period of calm or silence.the still of the night
2. (photography) A non-moving photograph. (The term is generally used only when it is necessary to distinguish from movies.)
3. (slang) A resident of the Falkland Islands.
4. A steep hill or ascent.

Via Middle English, ultimately from Latin stilla

Noun

1. a device for distilling liquids.
2. (catering) a large water boiler used to make tea and coffee.
3. (catering) the area in a restaurant used to make tea and coffee, separate from the main kitchen.
4. A building where liquors are distilled; a distillery.

Old English stillan

Verb

1. to calm down, to quietto still the raging sea
• WoodwardHe having a full sway over the water, had power to still and compose it, as well as to move and disturb it.
• ShakespeareWith his name the mothers still their babies.
• Hawthornetoil that would, at least, have stilled an unquiet impulse in me

Aphetic form of distil, or from Latin stillare.

Verb

1. (obsolete) To trickle, drip.
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ii:any drop of slombring rest
  Did chaunce to still into her wearie spright ....
2. To cause to fall by drops.
3. To expel spirit from by heat, or to evaporate and condense in a refrigeratory; to distill.

Anagrams

• lilts
• tills