sill

• enPR: sĭl, IPA^(key): /sɪl/,
• Rhymes: -ɪl

From Middle English sille, selle, sülle, from Old English syll, syl (“sill, threshold, foundation, base, basis”), from Proto-Germanic *sulī (“bar, sill”), from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel- (“beam, board, frame, threshold”). Cognate with Scots sil, sill (“balk, beam, floor, sill”), Dutch zulle (“sill”), Low German Sull, Sülle (“threshold, ramp, sill”), Danish syld (“base of a framework building”), Swedish syll (“joist, cross-tie”), Norwegian syll, Icelandic syll, sylla (“sill”). Related also to German Schwelle ( > Danish svelle), Old Norse svill, Latin silva (“wood, forest”), Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē).

sill (plural sills)

1. (architecture) (also window sill) A horizontal slat which forms the base of a window.

   She looked out the window resting her elbows on the window sill.

2. (construction) A horizontal, structural member of a building near ground level on a foundation or pilings or lying on the ground in earth-fast construction and bearing the upright portion of a frame. Also called a ground plate, groundsill, sole, sole-plate, mudsill. An interrupted sill fits between posts instead of being below and supporting the posts in timber framing.
3. (geology) A horizontal layer of igneous rock between older rock beds.
   • 1980, U.S. Government Printing Office, Geological Survey Professional Paper, Volume 1119

     Minor palingenetic magmas probably were generated at this time and intruded the mantling rocks in the form of small sills and apophyses; […]

4. A piece of timber across the bottom of a canal lock for the gates to shut against.
5. (anatomy) A raised area at the base of the nasal aperture in the skull.

   the nasal sill

6. (military, historical) The inner edge of the bottom of an embrasure.

Usually spelled cill when used in the context of canal or river engineering.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:sill.

• doorsill
• mudsill
• groundsill
• windowsill

• lintel
• plate sense #13 (construction)

Compare sile.

sill (plural sills)

1. (Britain) A young herring.

Compare thill.

sill (plural sills)

1. The shaft or thill of a carriage.

• ills

From Old Norse síld, from Proto-Germanic *sīlą.

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• IPA^(key): /sɪl/

sill c

1. a herring

• Herring from the Atlantic on Sweden's west coast is called sill. The subspecies fished from the Baltic Sea on Sweden's east coast is called strömming.

• strömming

• Harris, Cyril M.. Illustrated dictionary of historic architecture. New York: Dover Publications, 1983, 1977. Groundsill →ISBN