till

¹ American  

[til] / tɪl /

preposition

1. up to the time of; until.

   to fight till death.

2. before (used in negative constructions).

   He did not come till today.

3. near or at a specified time.

   till evening.

4. Chiefly Midland, Southern, and Western U.S. before; to.

   It's ten till four on my watch.

5. Scot. and North England.

   1. to.

   2. unto.

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conjunction

1. to the time that or when; until.

2. before (used in negative constructions).

till ² American  

[til] / tɪl /

verb (used with object)

1. to labor, as by plowing or harrowing, upon (land) for the raising of crops; cultivate.

2. to plow.

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verb (used without object)

1. to cultivate the soil.

till ³ American  

[til] / tɪl /

noun

1. a drawer, box, or the like, as in a shop or bank, in which money is kept.

2. a drawer, tray, or the like, as in a cabinet or chest, for keeping valuables.

3. an arrangement of drawers or pigeonholes, as on a desk top.

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till ⁴ American  

[til] / tɪl /

noun

1. Geology. glacial drift consisting of an unassorted mixture of clay, sand, gravel, and boulders.

2. a stiff clay.

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till ¹ British  

/ tɪl /

noun

1. an unstratified glacial deposit consisting of rock fragments of various sizes. The most common is boulder clay

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till ² British  

/ tɪl /

verb

1. to cultivate and work (land) for the raising of crops

2. another word for plough

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till ³ British  

/ tɪl /

noun

1. a box, case, or drawer into which the money taken from customers is put, now usually part of a cash register

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till ⁴ British  

/ tɪl /

conjunction

1. Also (not standard): 'til.  short for until

2. to; towards

3. dialect in order that

   come here till I tell you

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till Scientific  

/ tĭl /

1. An unstratified, unconsolidated mass of boulders, pebbles, sand, and mud deposited by the movement or melting of a glacier. The size and shape of the sediments that constitute till vary widely.

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till Idioms  

1. In addition to the subsequent idioms beginning with till, also see hand in the till; until.

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Usage

Till is a variant of until that is acceptable at all levels of language. Until is, however, often preferred at the beginning of a sentence in formal writing: until his behaviour improves, he cannot become a member

Commonly Confused

Till1 and until are both old in the language and are interchangeable as both prepositions and conjunctions: It rained till (or until ) nearly midnight. The savannah remained brown and lifeless until (or till ) the rains began. Till is not a shortened form of until and is not spelled 'till. 'Til is usually considered a spelling error, though widely used in advertising: Open 'til ten.

Other Word Forms

• mistilled adjective
• tillable adjective
• tiller noun
• untilled adjective
• untilling adjective
• well-tilled adjective

Etymology

Origin of till¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English (north) til “to,” from Old Norse til “to,” akin to Old English till “station, fixed point, standing-place” German Ziel “goal”

Origin of till²

First recorded before 900; Middle English tilen, Old English tilian “to strive after, get, till”; cognate with Dutch telen “to breed, cultivate,” German zielen “to aim at”

Origin of till³

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English tylle, noun use of tylle “to draw, attract,” Old English -tyllan (in fortyllan “to seduce”); akin to Latin dolus “trick,” Greek dólos “bait (for fish); any cunning contrivance; treachery”

Origin of till⁴

First recorded in 1665–75; origin uncertain