pill

noun

1. (broadly)A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.

   “Take two pills every hour in the apyrexia of intermittent fever, until eight are taken.”

2. (broadly)A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
3. (definite, informal, uncountable)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.”

   “I'm tearing down your brooder house / 'Cause now I've got the pill”

   “Many specialists are requesting that this vitamin be included in all contraceptive pills, as women on the pill have a tendency to be depressed.”

4. Something offensive, unpleasant or nauseous which must be accepted or endured.

   “"It's a sad unpalatable truth," said Mr. Pembroke, thinking that the despondency might be personal, "but one must accept it. My sister and Gerald, I am thankful to say, have accepted it, so naturally it has been a little pill."”

5. (slang)A contemptible, annoying, or unpleasant person.

   “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.”

   “Instead, 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.”

6. (slang)A comical or entertaining person.
7. A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibers formed on the surface of a textile fabric by rubbing.

   “One sleeve, threadbare and loaded with what my mother called “sweater pills,” hung halfway to the floor.”

8. (slang)A baseball.

   “"Strike two!" bawled the umpire. I threw the pill back to Tom with a heart which drummed above the noise of the rooters along the side lines.”

   “Mr. Fisher contributed to the Sox effort when he threw the pill past second baseman Rath after Felsch hit him a comebacker.”

9. (slang)A bullet (projectile).
10. A rounded rectangle containing a brief text caption indicating the tag or category that an item belongs to.
11. (obsolete)The peel or skin.

    “Some be covered with crusts or hard pills, as the locust”

    “To make Sallet of Lemon pill, or green Citron. You must have your Lemon Pill preserved very green, Rasp it into a Dish, and raise it up lightly with a Fork […]”

12. (UK, regional)An inlet on the coast; a small tidal pool or bay. Pill can occur in the name of such an inlet.

    “Portishead, lying west-north-west of Bristol, on the Severn, had a small port from medieval times on its pill, or inlet, and began to develop as a seaside resort early in the nineteenth century, when it was served by steam packets from Bristol.”

    “For fifty years, then, five times a week, the packet steamers came and went along that superb stretch of blue water, the trains rattled down the wooded valley of the pill, and their passengers rested and refreshed themselves in thriving New Milford, where flunkeys bowed before the best hotel. Those are the days which Neyland people, especially the older ones, recall with pride.”

verb

1. (intransitive)Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber.

   “This sweater is already pilled: it fuzzed after the very first wash.”

   “During 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. (transitive)To medicate with pills; to administer pills to.

   “She pills herself with all sorts of herbal medicines.”

   “Pilling the cat is such a nightmare.”

4. (Internet, transitive)To persuade or convince someone of something.
5. (UK, dated, slang, transitive)To blackball (a potential club member).

   ““I pilled him because he is a liar,” said Thackeray. “He calls himself 'ill' when he isn't.””

6. (obsolete)To peel; to remove the outer layer of hair, skin, or bark.
7. To peel; to make by removing the skin.

   “[Jacob] pilled white streaks[…]in the rods.”

8. To be peeled; to peel off in flakes.
9. (obsolete)To pillage; to despoil or impoverish.

   “So syr Lucan departed for he was greuously wounded in many places And so as he yede he sawe and herkened by the mone lyght how that pyllars and robbers were comen in to the felde To pylle and robbe many a ful noble knyghte of brochys and bedys of many a good rynge & of many a ryche Iewel / and who that were not deed al oute”

   “The Galles and thoſe pilling Briggandines, That yeerely ſaile to the Uenetian goulfe, And houer in the ſtraightes for Chriſtians wracke, Shall lie at anchor in the Iſle Aſant.”

   “And there by her were poured forth at fill, As if, this to adorne, she all the rest did pill”

name

1. A village in Pill and Easton-in-Gordano parish, North Somerset district, Somerset, England (OS grid ref ST5275).
2. A municipality of Tyrol, Austria.
3. A surname.