I. ˈpil noun
( -s )
Etymology: earlier pille, from (assumed) Middle English, from Old English pyll, alteration of pull pool, creek, probably of Old Welsh origin
1. dialect England : pool
2. dialect England : a running stream : creek
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English pilen, pillen, partly from Old English pilian to peel (probably from Latin pilare to depilate, from pilus hair), partly from Middle French piller to plunder — more at pile , pillage
intransitive verb
dialect chiefly England : peel : come off especially in flakes or scales
transitive verb
1.
a. archaic : to subject to depredation or extortion : despoil , rob
the commons hath he pilled with grievous taxes and quite lost their hearts — Shakespeare
b. obsolete : to seize by violence : extort
hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out in sharing that which you have pilled from me — Shakespeare
2. dialect : to peel or strip off (as bark)
took him rods of green poplar … and pilled white streaks in them — Gen 30:37 (Authorized Version)
3. obsolete : to deprive of hair : remove hair from
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English pile, from pilen to pill
dialect : the peel or rind of fruit : the shell or skin of fruits and bulbous roots : the bark of a tree
IV. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Latin pilula, literally, little ball, diminutive of pila ball — more at pile (hair)
1. : a medicine in the form of a little ball or small rounded mass that may be coated or uncoated and is to be swallowed whole — compare tablet
2. : something offensive, repugnant, or unpleasant that must be accepted or endured
the loss of the promotion was a bitter pill to swallow
3. : something resembling a pill usually in size or shape: as
a. : pellet 1a
kneading his bread into little white pills — Robin Maugham
b.
(1) : cannonball
(2) : a musket ball
thirty thousand muskets flung their pills like hail — Lord Byron
c. slang
(1) : baseball
(2) : golf ball
d. : a small ball of textile fibers often formed by the balling of nap when subject to friction
e. : a compressed mass of a plastic material for use in a mold : preform
4. : a disagreeable or tiresome person
she was considered in some circles a vast pill — Alma Stone
5.
a. slang : cigarette
b. : a portion of opium prepared for smoking
V. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
transitive verb
1. : to dose with pills
2. : blackball
3. : to make or form into or as if into pills
intransitive verb
: to form balls
sweaters made of wool yarns may have a tendency to pill — Chicago Daily Drovers Journal
VI. noun
Usage: sometimes capitalized
: birth control pill herein — usually used with the