I. pill 1 S3 /pɪl/ BrE AmE noun
[ Date: 1400-1500 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: pilula , from pila 'ball' ]
1 . [countable] a small solid piece of medicine that you swallow whole:
He has to take pills to control his blood pressure.
sleeping pills
a bottle of vitamin pills
2 . the Pill/the pill a pill taken regularly by some women in order to prevent them having babies
on the Pill
My doctor advised me to go on the pill (=start taking it regularly) .
3 . sugar/sweeten the pill to do something to make an unpleasant job or situation less unpleasant for the person who has to accept it
4 . be a pill American English informal if someone, especially a child, is a pill, they are annoying:
Luke can be a real pill sometimes.
⇨ a bitter pill (to swallow) at ↑ bitter 1 (7), ⇨ ↑ morning-after pill
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COLLOCATIONS
■ verbs
▪ take a pill (=use it by swallowing it)
Have you taken your pills?
▪ swallow a pill
He swallowed a handful of pills.
▪ pop a pill informal (=take one too easily, without thinking about it seriously)
Some people just pop a pill to get a good night's sleep.
▪ a doctor prescribes pills (=tells someone to take them)
Her doctor just prescribed more pills and told her to take it easy.
■ NOUN + pill
▪ a sleeping pill
I took a sleeping pill and tried to go back to sleep.
▪ malaria pills (=pills that prevent malaria)
▪ vitamin pills
▪ diet pills (=pills that are said to help you become thinner)
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ medicine noun [uncountable and countable] a substance used for treating illness:
Certain medicines should not be taken with alcohol.
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Has he taken his medicine?
▪ pill noun [countable] a small piece of medicine that you swallow:
She managed to swallow the pill with a sip of water.
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The doctor gave him some pills.
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sleeping pills
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diet pills
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contraceptive pills
▪ tablet noun [countable] especially British English a small piece of solid medicine:
She's now on four tablets a day.
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a five-day course of tablets
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sleeping tablets
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anti-malaria tablets
▪ antibiotics/aspirin/codeine etc :
The doctor put him on a course of antibiotics.
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Why don’t you take some aspirin?
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The tablets contain codeine, which is unsuitable for people with asthma.
▪ capsule noun [countable] a small tube-shaped container with medicine inside that you swallow whole:
a bottle of 500 capsules of vitamin C
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I advised her to take four to six garlic capsules a day for the duration of the treatment.
▪ caplet noun [countable] a small smooth pill that is slightly longer than it is wide - used especially on bottles and containers:
In small type, the consumer is warned not to take more than one caplet per day.
▪ eye/ear drops liquid medicine that you put into your eye or ear:
Remember — if you 're using eye drops for your hay fever, leave your contact lenses out.
▪ cream noun [uncountable and countable] especially British English ( also lotion especially American English ) a thick smooth substance containing medicine, that you put on your skin:
an antibiotic cream
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antiseptic cream
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skin cream
▪ drug noun [countable] a medicine or a substance for making medicines:
a drug used to treat malaria
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There are a wide range of different drugs on the market.
▪ dosage noun [countable usually singular] the amount of medicine that you should take at one time:
The dosage should be reduced to 0.5 mg.
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It’s important to get the dosage right.
▪ medication noun [uncountable and countable] medicine or drugs given to someone who is ill:
He takes medication for his diabetes.
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She’s on medication (=taking medication) , having suffered from depression for a number of years.
II. pill 2 BrE AmE verb [intransitive] American English
if a piece of clothing pills, especially a ↑ sweater , it forms little balls on the surface of the cloth after it has been worn or washed