QUILL

quill

(noun) a stiff hollow protective spine on a porcupine or hedgehog

quill, calamus, shaft

(noun) the hollow spine of a feather

quill, quill pen

(noun) pen made from a bird’s feather

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Proper noun

Quill

A surname.

Etymology

Noun

quill (plural quills)

The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.

A pen made from a feather.

Synonyms: feather pen, quill pen

(figuratively) Any pen.

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.

A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.

The pen of a squid.

(music) The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.

(music) The tube of a musical instrument.

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.

Verb

quill (third-person singular simple present quills, present participle quilling, simple past and past participle quilled)

To pierce or be pierced with quills.

(figuratively) To write.

To form fabric into small, rounded folds.

To decorate with quillwork.

(US and Canada, especially, Appalachia and the Prairies, transitive) To subject (a woman who is giving birth) to the practice of quilling (blowing pepper into her nose to induce or hasten labor).

Source: Wiktionary


Quill, n. Etym: [Perhaps fr. F. quille ninepin (see Kayless); but cf. also G. kiel a quill. MHG. kil, and Ir. cuille a quill.]

1. One of the large feathers of a bird's wing, or one of the rectrices of the tail; also, the stock of such a feather.

2. A pen for writing made by sharpening and splitting the point or nib of the stock of a feather; as, history is the proper subject of his quill. Sir H. Wotton.

3. (Zoöl.) (a) A spine of the hedgehog or porcupine. (b) The pen of a squid. See Pen.

4. (Mus.) (a) The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments. (b) The tube of a musical instrument. He touched the tender stops of various quills. Milton.

5. Something having the form of a quill; as: (a) The fold or plain of a ruff. (b) (Weaving) A spindle, or spool, as of reed or wood, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle. (c) (Mach.) A hollow spindle. Quill bit, a bit for boring resembling the half of a reed split lengthways and having its end sharpened like a gouge.

– Quill driver, one who works with a pen; a writer; a clerk. [Jocose] -- Quill nib, a small quill pen made to be used with a holder. Simmonds.

Quill, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Quilled; p. pr. & vb. n. Quilling.]

1. To plaint in small cylindrical ridges, called quillings; as, to quill a ruffle. His cravat seemed quilled into a ruff. Goldsmith.

2. To wind on a quill, as thread or yarn. Judd.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

28 March 2024

HUDDLED

(adjective) crowded or massed together; “give me...your huddled masses”; “the huddled sheep turned their backs against the wind”


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