fill

• enPR: fĭl, IPA^(key): /fɪl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl
• Homophone: Phil

From Middle English fillen, fullen, from Old English fyllan (“to fill, fill up, replenish, satisfy; complete, fulfill”), from Proto-Germanic *fullijaną (“to make full, fill”), from *fullaz (“full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”). Cognate with Scots fill (“to fill”), West Frisian folje (“to fill”), Dutch vullen (“to fill”), Low German fullen (“to fill”), German füllen (“to fill”), Danish fylde (“to fill”), Swedish fylla (“to fill”), Norwegian fylle (“to fill”), Icelandic fylla (“to fill”) and Latin plenus (“full”)

fill (third-person singular simple present fills, present participle filling, simple past and past participle filled)

1. (transitive) To occupy fully, to take up all of.
   • c. 1761, Tobias Smollett, translator, Don Quixote, part 2, book 5, chapter 4:

     […] the drums began to thunder, the sound of trumpets filled the air, the earth trembled beneath their feet, and the hearts of the gazing multitude throbbed with suspense and expectation […]

   • c. 1860, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, chapter 38:

     And now that I have given the one chapter to the theme that so filled my heart, and so often made it ache and ache again, I pass on, unhindered, to the event that had impended over me longer yet […] .

2. (transitive) To add contents to (a container, cavity, or the like) so that it is full.
   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 3, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

   • 1950, Arthur W. Upfield, The Bachelors of Broken Hill, chapter 11:

     She continued to frown as she filled Bony's cup and added brandy to her own.

   • 2005, Wendy Coakley-Thompson, What You Won't Do for Love, 2006 edition, →ISBN, page 10 :

     She forgave him the pain as he filled the cavity in her back molar. Three weeks later, she let him fill a more intimate cavity.

   • 2006, Gilbert Morris, Sante Fe Woman, B&H, page 95 :

     Grat Herendeen was the first man, a huge man with his bull whip coiled and over his shoulder seeming almost a part of him. He grinned at her as she filled his plate with the eggs and motioned toward the bacon. "Help yourself, Grat."

3. To enter (something), making it full.
   • 1910 May 13, John C. Sherwin, opinion, Delashmutt et al. v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. et al., reprinted in volume 126, North Western Reporter, page 359, at 360:

     In the evening of the 14th of July, there was a rainfall of 3 or 3½ inches in that locality. The water filled the ditch so full that it overflowed the levees on both sides in many places […] .

   • 2004, Peter Westen, The Logic of Consent, Ashgate, →ISBN, page 322 :

     As the crowd filled the aisles, S repeated loudly what he had announced upon entering the stadium: 'I don't want anyone to touch me, and I will call the police if anyone does.'

4. (intransitive) To become full.

   the bucket filled with rain;  the sails fill with wind

5. (intransitive) To become pervaded with something.

   My heart filled with joy.

6. (transitive) To satisfy or obey (an order, request, or requirement).

   The pharmacist filled my prescription for penicillin.

   We can't let the library close! It fills a great need in the community.

7. (transitive) To install someone, or be installed, in (a position or office), eliminating a vacancy.
   • 1891 January 23, Allen Morse, opinion, Lawrence v. Hanley, reprinted in volume 47, Northwestern Reporter, page 753, at 755:

     The board of supervisors called a specal^[sic] election to fill the office, and at such special election Henry C. Andrews was elected judge of probate to fill out the said term.

   Sorry, no more applicants. The position has been filled.

8. (transitive) To treat (a tooth) by adding a dental filling to it.
   • a. 1891, "Intimate Diagnosis of Diseased Teeth", in Items of Interest: A Monthly Magazine of Dental Art, Science and Literature, volume 13, number 11, November 1891, page 657 :

     Be that as it may, had the disturbance continued after our having filled the molar, and presuming that nothing had been done to the bicuspid, we might have been still as far as ever from knowing where the trouble lay.

9. (transitive) To fill or supply fully with food; to feed; to satisfy.
   • Bible, Matthew xv. 33

     Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?

   • Francis Bacon

     Things that are sweet and fat are more filling.

10. (transitive, nautical) To trim (a yard) so that the wind blows on the after side of the sails.
11. (transitive, slang, vulgar, of a male) To have sexual intercourse with (a female).

    Did you fill that girl last night?

• (occupy fully, take up all of): pervade

• (add contents to a container or cavity): empty
• (to become full): empty

• backfill
• polyfill
• refill

• backfill
• filler
• filling
• forthfill
• fulfill, fulfil
• overfill

• full

From Middle English fille, vülle, fülle, from Old English fyllu, from Proto-Germanic *fullį̄. Cognate with German Fülle.

fill (plural fills)

1. (after a possessive) A sufficient or more than sufficient amount.

   Don't feed him any more: he's had his fill.

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:

     Then they set somewhat of food before me, whereof I ate my fill, and gave me somewhat of clothes wherewith I clad myself anew and covered my nakedness; after which they took me up into the ship, […]

2. An amount that fills a container.

   The mixer returned to the plant for another fill.

3. The filling of a container or area.

   That machine can do 20 fills a minute.

   This paint program supports lines, circles, and textured fills.

4. Inexpensive material used to occupy empty spaces, especially in construction.

   The ruins of earlier buildings were used as fill for more recent construction.

5. (archaeology) Soil and/or human-created debris discovered within a cavity or cut in the layers and exposed by excavation; fill soil.
6. An embankment, as in railroad construction, to fill a hollow or ravine; also, the place which is to be filled.
7. (music) A short passage, riff, or rhythmic sound that helps to keep the listener's attention during a break between the phrases of a melody.

   bass fill

• fill soil
• fill up

See thill.

fill (plural fills)

1. One of the thills or shafts of a carriage.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Mortimer to this entry?)

   • 2008, Martha E. Green, Pioneers in Pith Helmets

     It was a challenge to learn to harness him, guide him slowly back between the fills of the carriage, then to fasten the right buckles and snaps, making the harness and buggy all ready for travel to church or to town.

Borrowed from Latin filum.

• IPA^(key): /fiɫ/

fill m (plural fije)

1. thread, yarn

Unclear. Probably from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stell; fixed, motionless, still, stiff”)

fill

1. at once, immediately, alone
2. instant

• filloj
• zanafillë

From Old Occitan filh, from Latin fīlius, from Latin fīlios (“son”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁y-li-os (“sucker”), a derivation from the verbal root *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suck”). Cognate to Occitan filh, French fils.

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈfiʎ/
• Rhymes: -iʎ

fill m (plural fills)

1. son

• filla

• “fill” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /fʲiːlʲ/
• (Galway) IPA^(key): /fʲiːl̠ʲ/
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /fʲɪl̠ʲ/

From Old Irish fillid (“turns back”), from Proto-Celtic *wel-n-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“turn”); compare German walzen (“roll”), Latin volvō (“turn”)

fill (present analytic filleann, future analytic fillfidh, verbal noun filleadh, past participle fillte)

1. turn back
2. return
3. fold
4. (biology, geology, medicine) plicate
5. (medicine, of symptoms) recur

• athfhill (“recur; (of decimals) circulate; refold; reflect”)

See the etymology of the main entry.

fill

1. genitive singular of feall

• "fill" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• “fillid” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

From Old Irish fillid (“turns back”), from Proto-Celtic *wel-n-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“turn”).

• IPA^(key): /fiːʎ/

fill (past dh'fhill, future fillidh, verbal noun filleadh, past participle fillte)

1. fold; plait; twill
2. imply
3. contain, include

• eadar-fhill (“intervolve”)

• Faclair Gàidhlig Dwelly Air Loidhne, Dwelly, Edward (1911), Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic-English Dictionary (10th ed.), Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• “fillid” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.