WordCodex

pill

See also: Pill and píll

pill - English

Noun

pill (plural pills)

  1. (broadly) A small, usually round or cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
    1. (strictly) Such an object that is of solid constitution (usually of compressed, bonded powder) rather than a capsule (with a shell containing loose powder or liquid).
  2. (informal, uncountable, definite, i.e. used with "the") Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill.
    • Jane went on the pill when she left for college.
    • She got pregnant one month after going off the pill.
  3. Something offensive, unpleasant or nauseous which must be accepted or endured.
  4. (slang) A contemptible, annoying, or unpleasant person.
  5. (slang) A comical or entertaining person.
  6. (textile) A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibres formed on the surface of a textile fabric by rubbing. Colloquially known as a bobble, fuzzball, or lint ball.
  7. (archaic, baseball slang) A baseball.
  8. (firearms, slang) A bullet (projectile).
  9. (graphical user interface) A rounded rectangle indicating the tag or category that an item belongs to.

Usage notes

The word pill referring to a swallowable unit conveying a dose of medication is polysemic in that it has a broad sense and a narrower sense: broadly, it means any such object, including any tablet or capsule, whereas narrowly, it means a tablet (including the caplet type of tablet) but not a capsule. But the broad sense of the word is widely used in general vocabulary, and also in the medical and nursing literature; linguistically this is predictably inevitable, because natural language has a practical need for a simple hypernym that intuitively covers all such oral dosage forms, and the word pill provides one by long-established idiomatic convention, with no alternative synonym that is thus established. Thus, trying to enforce a usage prescription that insists that the word must never be used in its broad sense is counterproductive to clear and concise communication. This is why some publications' style sheets specify that the words tablet, caplet, and capsule will be used wherever technical precision is needed and that the word pill will be reserved for contexts where the technical precision is irrelevant because the hypernymic concept is clearly meant, as for example in an instruction to ask the patient whether they remember taking all their pills this morning.

Synonyms

  • (small object for swallowing): tablet
  • (bullet): cap

Derived terms

Translations

  • Finnish: hitunen (fi), rahtu (fi)
  • Russian: ка́тышек (ru) m (kátyšek)

Verb

pill (third-person singular simple present pills, present participle pilling, simple past and past participle pilled)

  1. (intransitive, textiles) Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber.
  2. To form into the shape of a pill.
    • Pilling is a skill rarely used by modern pharmacists.
  3. (transitive) To medicate with pills.
    • She pills herself with all sorts of herbal medicines.
  4. (transitive, Internet slang) To persuade or convince someone of something.
  5. (transitive, UK, slang, dated) To blackball (a potential club member).

Translations

Verb

pill (third-person singular simple present pills, present participle pilling, simple past and past participle pilled)

  1. (obsolete) To peel; to remove the outer layer of hair, skin, or bark.
  2. To peel; to make by removing the skin.
  3. To be peeled; to peel off in flakes.
  4. (obsolete) To pillage; to despoil or impoverish.

Noun

pill (plural pills)

  1. (obsolete) The peel or skin.

Noun

pill (plural pills)

  1. (now UK regional) An inlet on the coast; a small tidal pool or bay.

pill - Albanian

Noun

pill

  1. vagina
  2. cunt (vulgar)

Synonyms

pill - Estonian

Noun

pill (genitive pilli, partitive pilli)

  1. (music) instrument

Declension

singular plural
nominative pill pillid
genitive pilli pillide
partitive pilli pille / pillisid
illative pilli / pillisse pillidesse / pillesse
inessive pillis pillides / pilles
elative pillist pillidest / pillest
allative pillile pillidele / pillele
adessive pillil pillidel / pillel
ablative pillilt pillidelt / pillelt
translative pilliks pillideks / pilleks
terminative pillini pillideni
essive pillina pillidena
abessive pillita pillideta
comitative pilliga pillidega

Synonyms

  • muusikariist

Noun

pill (genitive pilli, partitive pilli)

  1. (medicine) pill

Declension

singular plural
nominative pill pillid
genitive pilli pillide
partitive pilli pille / pillisid
illative pilli / pillisse pillidesse / pillesse
inessive pillis pillides / pilles
elative pillist pillidest / pillest
allative pillile pillidele / pillele
adessive pillil pillidel / pillel
ablative pillilt pillidelt / pillelt
translative pilliks pillideks / pilleks
terminative pillini pillideni
essive pillina pillidena
abessive pillita pillideta
comitative pilliga pillidega

Synonyms

pill - Scottish Gaelic

Noun

pill m

  1. genitive singular of peall

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical Lenition
pillphill
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

pill - Swedish

Noun

pill n

  1. (colloquial) finicky or fiddly activity
    • Det är alltid sånt pill med gräsklipparen
      • The lawn mower is always so finicky
    • Det är alltid sånt pill att sy fast knappar
      • It's always so fiddly to sew buttons on
    • Det är mycket pill nu
      • There's a lot of finicky work right now

Usage notes

Could be translated as "finickness" or "finick" (finicky activity) if any of those were used in English. See pilla for intuition.

Declension

Declension of pill 
Meaning and Definition of pill
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