What does pill mean?

Definitions for pill
pɪlpill

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word pill.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. pillnoun

    something that resembles a tablet of medicine in shape or size

  2. pill, lozenge, tablet, tabnoun

    a dose of medicine in the form of a small pellet

  3. pillnoun

    a unpleasant or tiresome person

  4. pillnoun

    something unpleasant or offensive that must be tolerated or endured

    "his competitor's success was a bitter pill to take"

  5. pill, birth control pill, contraceptive pill, oral contraceptive pill, oral contraceptive, anovulatory drug, anovulantnoun

    a contraceptive in the form of a pill containing estrogen and progestin to inhibit ovulation and so prevent conception

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Pillnoun

    Medicine made into a small ball or mass.

    Etymology: pilula, Lat. pillule, French.

    In the taking of a potion or pills, the head and the neck shake. Francis Bacon, Natural History.

    When I was sick, you gave me bitter pills. William Shakespeare.

    The oraculous doctor’s mystick bills,
    Certain hard words made into pills. Richard Crashaw.

  2. To Pillverb

    Etymology: piller, Fr.

    So did he good to none, to many ill;
    So did he all the kingdom rob and pill. Hubberd.

    The commons hath he pill’d with grievous taxes,
    And lost their hearts. William Shakespeare, Richard II.

    Large-handed robbers your grave masters are,
    And pill by law. William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens.

    You wrangling pirates, that fall out
    In sharing that which you have pill’d from me. William Shakespeare.

    Suppose pilling and polling officers, as busy upon the people, as those flies were upon the fox. Roger L'Estrange.

    He who pill’d his province ’scapes the laws,
    And keeps his money, though he lost his cause. Dryden.

    Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and pilled white streaks in them. Genesis xxx. 37.

  3. To Pillverb

    To be stript away; to come off in flakes or scoriæ. This should be peel; which see.

    The whiteness pilled away from his eyes. Tob. xi. 13.

ChatGPT

  1. pill

    A pill is a small, round or oval-shaped, solid dosage form of medication meant to be swallowed, containing one or more active ingredients, sometimes in combination with other substances, used to prevent, treat, or diagnose a disease or health condition. It is one of the most common forms of pharmaceutical drug delivery.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Pillnoun

    the peel or skin

  2. Pillverb

    to be peeled; to peel off in flakes

  3. Pillverb

    to deprive of hair; to make bald

  4. Pillverb

    to peel; to make by removing the skin

  5. Pill

    to rob; to plunder; to pillage; to peel. See Peel, to plunder

  6. Pillnoun

    a medicine in the form of a little ball, or small round mass, to be swallowed whole

  7. Pillnoun

    figuratively, something offensive or nauseous which must be accepted or endured

  8. Etymology: [F. pilute, L. pilula a pill, little ball, dim. of L. pila a ball. Cf. Piles.]

Wikidata

  1. Pill

    Pill is a village in North Somerset. It is situated on the southern bank of the Avon. Pill is adjacent to the village of Easton-in-Gordano. Opposite Pill is the Bristol suburb of Shirehampton. "Pill", in Anglo-Saxon, means a "creek" or "inlet" off a river or channel or a small harbour, often tidal and occasionally used as a dock.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Pill

    pil, n. a little ball of medicine: anything nauseous which must be accepted: (slang) a doctor: a disagreeable person.—v.t. (slang) to blackball.—n. Pill′-box, a box for holding pills: a kind of one-horse carriage. [Fr. pilule—L. pilula, dim. of pĭla, a ball.]

  2. Pill

    pil, v.t. and v.i. to strip, peel: to deprive of hair.—n. (Spens.) skin. [Peel.]

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. pill

    (See PIL.) A term on the western coast for a draining rivulet, as well as the creek into which it falls.

Suggested Resources

  1. pill

    Song lyrics by pill -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by pill on the Lyrics.com website.

  2. PILL

    What does PILL stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the PILL acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. PILL

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Pill is ranked #68122 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Pill surname appeared 289 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Pill.

    92.7% or 268 total occurrences were White.
    2.7% or 8 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    2.4% or 7 total occurrences were Black.

British National Corpus

  1. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'pill' in Nouns Frequency: #2742

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce pill?

How to say pill in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of pill in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of pill in Pythagorean Numerology is: 4

Examples of pill in a Sentence

  1. Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly:

    They have seen these bricks that are marked with the Mexican cartel's logo. They're very proud of their product. I've been to the border. I've seen what's going on there. They're lacing fentanyl to give the impression that it's an Adderall or it's whatever pill that somebody thinks they're buying on the black market, when in fact, it's a fake pill, and it's laced with fentanyl, we're seeing that in our heroin. Marijuana is being laced with fentanyl to give the smoker a better high. They're really playing … Russian Roulette because they just don't know when they're going to get that fatal dose.

  2. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown:

    It is a poison pill in reverse.

  3. Sarah Silverman:

    I remember thinking I want to move home to New Hampshire. ... You just want to go home, and you don't want to do anything scary. And then I found a woman who put me on a pill called Klonopin that all it does is block panic attacks. And that really saved my life in that I was able to go to work at' Saturday Night Live' and exist through each day while I was figuring this out.

  4. Judy Kuriansky:

    Women’s sexuality is very complicated. It’s not a matter of just taking that pill by the way, and then all of a sudden the lights go on, you have to feel good about your body. You have to feel good about yourself. You have to feel the guy really loves you. … It’s complex. It’s not the same as a man taking a pill.

  5. Kelly Cleland:

    Relationships are complicated. There can be situations where there isn’t access to emergency contraception or women might not ask the partner to use it. So being able to have access to one pill and a backup is a great idea. i am in favor of expanding access, but this is a missed opportunity when a generic brand comes into the market with a high price barrier.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

pill#1#5159#10000

Translations for pill

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"pill." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 27 Feb. 2025. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/pill>.

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