# pilly
## English
### Pronunciation

* Rhymes: -ɪli

### Etymology 1

From pill +‎ -y. In some cases, pill is a clipping of a longer word.

#### Adjective

pilly (comparative pillier, superlative pilliest)
* Covered in pills (particles created by mechanical wear).
    After many washings, my favorite sweater is faded and pilly.
** 2009, Allegra Goodman, Paradise Park, page 21:I gave the superintendent a deposit and I got a room on the third floor with a bed that had sheets and a pilly blanket and a pillow so flat you had to fold it over to rest your head on it.
** 2015, Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao:One was a young woman with stringy brown hair, a pilly black sweater and fabulous boots of parti-coloured suede.
** 2017, R. J. Noonan, Where the Lost Girls Go:So many stuffed animals. Most were pristine—their fur shiny and smooth, barely a nap on them—except for two worn creatures: a round turtle with a pilly knit shell and a brown bear with a round head and a flat body that looked like someone had literally squeezed the stuffing out of it..
** 2020, Brian Selfon, The Nightworkers:Resuming her walk, she takes out her phone. Pulls up pictures of his sketches: a battered shoebox beneath a car, a cat beside the shoebox, one eye open. A pilly sweater, one arm still crossed over a pile of cash.
* Charcterized by or involving many pills.
** 1954, The Louisville & Nashville Employes' Magazine - Volume 30, page 62:Paiuline Eichstadt spent a week at home womewhat indisposed with Eddie as doctor and nursemaid. A pilly and puny vacation he spent.

#### Noun

pilly (plural pillies)
* (informal) Pill.
** 1981, Vardine Moore, The Pleasure of Poetry with and by Children, page 118:Billy Willy is a dilly, He took a pilly And turned silly
** 2022, Andy Warhol, a: A Novel:Let's tak a little pilly here...I, I need it.
* (informal) A pillhead. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
* (informal) The lilly-pilly.
** 2001, Mark Harris, The Amazing Adventure in Tovia, page 59:Withdrawing the smaller blade from his belt, Speezer rolled a pilly pod from the tray and sliced it open With his sharp knife.
* (informal) Pilchard.
** 2007, Paul Worsteling, Jack Crowley, Fishing Western Port, page 18:When buying pillies look for IQF fish.
** 2011, Gary Brown, How to Catch Australia's Favourite Saltwater Fish, page 62:I prefer to have a range of thee different sizes and colours in squid jigs, but you could also try using squid fish spikes and put a pilly on it.
* (informal) One who rides pillion.
** 2021, Tracy-lee Adams, The Dunce:I attended quite a few other social-group events, made new friends, registered with other motorcycle groups as a pillion, and got out on a few rides. I was really enjoying the riding but sometimes felt frustrated if nobody was available to take a 'pilly' out.

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

pilly (plural pillies)
* (Scotland) pillow
** 1873 November 29, “A London Pilgrimage among the Boarding-Houses. V. A Merchant Captain's Roost.”, in Charles Dickens, Jr., editor, All the Year Round, A Weekly Journal (New Series), volume XIpage=110, column 2, London: […] Chapman & Hall, […], published 1874:Kattie! There's another coming. Another mattress and a pilly. Where can we put him?
** 1876, Lewis Strange Wingfield, Slippery ground - Volume 2, page 147:She will have to dig a mattress and a pilly from the stair-well.
** 1914, Lachlan Macbean, Pet Marjorie, page 31:Her head it rests upon a pilly And she is not so very silly

### See also

* lilly-pilly (almost certainly etymologically unrelated)
* pilly willy (almost certainly etymologically unrelated)

### Anagrams

* lipyl

## Yagara
### Noun

pilly
* Alternative form of pilla.