quill
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
engineering
entertainment
lifestyle
mechanical
mechanical-engineering
music
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
zoology
Etymology: From late Middle English quyl, which is first attested in the early 15th century with the meanings "fragment of reed" and "shaft of a feather", probably from Low German and Middle Low German quiele, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to pierce, stick”).
Compare Middle High German kil (“large feather, quill”), which is derived from the Low German term.
Inflected forms:
form: quills
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: quills
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: quilling
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: quilled
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: quilled
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.
pos: noun
gloss: A pen made from a feather.
pos: noun
examples: The note was written in a delicate hand with a crow-quill, on primrose-coloured paper, with a lilac seal—the motto "tout à vous;" and the whole with just a faint perfume of jasmine.
gloss: Any pen.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: He picked up his quill and wrote a poem.
gloss: A sharply pointed, barbed, and easily detached needle-like structure that grows on the skin of a porcupine or hedgehog as a defense against predators.
pos: noun
examples: I could a Tale vnfold, vvhoſe lighteſt vvord / VVould harrovv vp thy ſoule, freeze thy young blood, / Make thy tvvo eyes like Starres, ſtart from their Spheres, / Thy knotty and combined locks to part, / And each particular haire to ſtand an end, / Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine: […]
gloss: A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.
pos: noun
gloss: The pen of a squid.
pos: noun
gloss: The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.
pos: noun
gloss: The tube of a musical instrument.
pos: noun
examples: He touched the tender stops of various quills.
gloss: Something having the form of a quill, such as the fold or plain of a ruff, or (weaving) a spindle, or spool, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.
pos: noun
examples: His hair still stood up in punk-rock quills and spikes.
gloss: A quill drive, having a hollow shaft with another movable shaft inside it.
pos: noun
examples: The motors are attached to the bogie frames so as to be fully springborne, and drive through quills and flexible couplings to the wheels.
gloss: To pierce with quills. (Usually in the passive voice, as be quilled or get quilled.)
pos: verb
examples: Coyotes, bears, and mountain lions which occasionally kill porcupines are sometimes quilled.
Then one of my dogs got quilled, and it happened again a month later. After putting the dog in a headlock, yanking out several dozen quills, and spurting blood all over myself and the decking of the back porch, I at least understood his antiporcupine venom.
gloss: To write.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
examples: Nibs never would have quilled a seriph to sheepskin.
One has only to recall that Coleridge and Wordsworth one day were lounging by the sea shore, while nearby sat an English police agent on snitch patrol prepared to rush to headquarters to quill a report about the conversation.
gloss: To form fabric into small, rounded folds.
pos: verb
gloss: To decorate with quillwork.
pos: verb
examples: Another characteristic of Plains Indians was the fairly strict division between art made and used by men and art made and used by women. Although men and women sometimes cooperated, women usually painted or quilled very balanced, controlled geometric designs on dresses, moccasins, robes, bags, and containers.
gloss: To subject (a woman who is giving birth) to the practice of quilling (blowing pepper into her nose to induce or hasten labor).
pos: verb
tags: Canada
US
transitive
examples: For quotations using this term, see Citations:quill.
Derived words: Big Quill
crow quill
goosequill
piss in a quill
pure quill
quillback
quill bit
quill-driver
quiller
quill feather
quillfish
quillless
quilllike
quillman
quill mite
quill pen
quill pig
quilltail
quillwort
quilly
Translations: