Tiller

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˈtɪlÉ™/
• Rhymes: -ɪlÉ™(r)

From till + -er.

Full definition of tiller

Noun

1. A person who tills; a farmer.
• 2000, Alasdair Gray, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury 2002, page 63:In France, Europe's most fertile and cultivated land, the tillers of it suffered more and more hunger.
2. A machine that mechanically tills the soil.

Synonyms

• (machine) cultivator

From Middle English *tilȝer, *telȝer, from Old English telgor, telgra, telgre ("twig, branch, shoot") (also telga, telge (whence tillow)), from Proto-Germanic *telgô, *telgōn ("twig, branch"), from Proto-Indo-European *delgʰ- ("to split, divide, cut, carve"). Cognate with Dutch telg ("descendant, scion, offshoot, shoot"), Dutch Low Saxon telge ("twig, branch"), German Zelge ("twig, branch, bough"), Swedish telning ("branch, scion, sapling"), Icelandic tág ("willow-twig").

Alternative forms

• tillow

Noun

1. (obsolete) A young tree.
2. A shoot of a plant which springs from the root or bottom of the original stalk; a sapling; a sucker.

Verb

1. (intransitive) To put forth new shoots from the root or from around the bottom of the original stalk; stool.

Anglo-Norman telier ("beam used in weaving"), from Medieval Latin telarium, from Latin tela ("web").

Noun

1. (archery) The stock; a beam on a crossbow carved to fit the arrow, or the point of balance in a longbow.
• Beaumont and FletcherYou can shoot in a tiller.
2. (nautical) A bar of iron or wood connected with the rudderhead and leadline, usually forward, in which the rudder is moved as desired by the tiller (FM 55-501).
3. (nautical) The handle of the rudder which the helmsman holds to steer the boat, a piece of wood or metal extending forward from the rudder over or through the transom. Generally attached at the top of the rudder.
4. A handle; a stalk.
5. (UK, dialect, obsolete) A small drawer; a till.

Derived terms

• tiller extension