What does "pill" mean?
Pill: To deprive of hair; to make bald. [Obs.]
Additional senses
- 2.To peel; to make by removing the skin. [Jacob] pilled white streaks . . . in the rods. Gen. xxx.
- 3.To rob; to plunder; to pillage; to peel. See Peel, to plunder. [Obs.] Spenser. Pillers and robbers were come in to the field to pill and to rob. Sir T. Malroy.
- 4.A medicine in the form of a little ball, or small round mass, to be swallowed whole.
- 5.Figuratively, something offensive or nauseous which must be accepted or endured. Udall. Pill beetle (Zoöl.), any small beetle of the genus Byrrhus, having a rounded body, with the head concealed beneath the thorax. -- Pill bug (Zoöl.), any terrestrial isopod of the genus Armadillo, having the habit of rolling itself into a ball when disturbed. Called also pill wood louse.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00