pill

¹

[ pil ]

noun

1. a small globular or rounded mass of medicinal substance, usually covered with a hard coating, that is to be swallowed whole.
2. something unpleasant that has to be accepted or endured:

   Ingratitude is a bitter pill.

3. Slang. a tiresomely disagreeable person.
4. Sports Slang. a ball, especially a baseball or golf ball.
5. the pill. birth-control pill.
6. pills, British Slang. billiards.

verb (used with object)

1. to dose with pills.
2. to form or make into pills.
3. Slang. to blackball.

verb (used without object)

1. to form into small, pill-like balls, as the fuzz on a wool sweater. Compare depill.

pill

²

[ pil ]

verb (used with or without object)

1. British Dialect. to peel.
2. Obsolete. to become or cause to become bald.

pill

³

[ pil ]

verb (used with object)

, Archaic.

1. to rob, plunder, or pillage.

pill

¹

/ pɪl /

verb

1. archaic.
   to peel or skin (something)
2. archaic.
   to pillage or plunder (a place)
3. obsolete.
   to make or become bald

pill

²

/ pɪl /

noun

1. a small spherical or ovoid mass of a medicinal substance, intended to be swallowed whole
2. the pill informal.
   the pill sometimes capital an oral contraceptive
3. something unpleasant that must be endured (esp in the phrase bitter pill to swallow )
4. slang.
   a ball or disc
5. a small ball of matted fibres that forms on the surface of a fabric through rubbing
6. slang.
   an unpleasant or boring person

verb

1. tr to give pills to
2. tr to make pills of
3. intr
   1. to form into small balls
   2. (of a fabric) to form small balls of fibre on its surface through rubbing
4. slang.
   tr to blackball

Word History and Origins

Origin of pill¹

First recorded in 1375–1425; Middle English pille, from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch pille, Old French pile, from Latin pilula “little ball, globule, pellet,” diminutive of pila “ball”; -ule

Origin of pill²

First recorded before 1100; Middle English pilen “to rob, steal, plunder,” Old English pilian “to skin, peel,” from Latin pilāre “to pluck, remove (hair or feathers)” pile ³

Origin of pill³

First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English pile(n), pille(n), pilie(n), probably conflation of pill ² with Middle French piller, peler ( pillage )

Word History and Origins

Origin of pill¹

Old English pilian, from Latin pilāre to strip

Origin of pill²

C15: from Middle Flemish pille, from Latin pilula a little ball, from pila ball

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. Take a chill pill! Disparaging Slang. chill pill ( def 2 ).

More idioms and phrases containing pill

see bitter pill to swallow ; sugar the pill .

Example Sentences

Sometimes you swallow pills you don’t like to get things done.

From Washington Post

Body temperature can be monitored through smart pills but also through wearables put on the skin.

From Washington Post

He gave her 10 pills each day, in addition to a few liquid medications.

From Washington Post

They take the pills for 15 days and log symptoms on a web-based platform.

From Science News

Maybe 15 or 20 percent of lung cancers in the United States are targeted by these pills that are quite effective and not very toxic.

From Freakonomics

For Randy, a 50-year-old ex-Mormon gay man, this cure was a particularly bitter pill to swallow.

From The Daily Beast

“He gave me a blue pill, which he said was an antihistamine,” said Chelan.

From The Daily Beast

Medication can now be taken in a single pill rather than a complex cocktail of tablets.

From The Daily Beast

A plastic surgeon gave her a supposedly lethal pill that also failed.

From The Daily Beast

For the Times, which had won four Pulitzer Prizes in 2013, the Snowden slip-up was a bitter pill to swallow.

From The Daily Beast

However cleverly the pill was gilded, the Marshal knew that it was the Emperor's distrust which had lost him the command.

From Project Gutenberg

Some people swallow the universe like a pill; they travel on through the world, like smiling images pushed from behind.

From Project Gutenberg

Thence to my office, and after several letters writ, home to supper and to bed, and took a pill.

From Project Gutenberg

That was a good initial effort, running down the opium pill mail-order enterprise.

From Project Gutenberg

But on setting down the cup his eye caught sight of the pill-box.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• dose
• medicine
• tablet