/dɹɪl/, [dɹɪɫ]
OriginFrom Middle Dutch drillen (“bore, move in a circle”).
- transitiveTo create (a hole) by removing material with a drill (tool).
“Drill a small hole to start the screw in the right direction.”
- intransitiveTo practice, especially in (or as in) a military context.
“They drilled daily to learn the routine exactly.”
“On his return the team that faced Hull City had been reconfigured. Moses wasn’t overly drilled, just told he would be playing right wing-back, that Conte had seen enough to know.”
- ergativeTo cause to drill (practice); to train in military arts.
“The sergeant was up by 6:00 every morning, drilling his troops.”
“He [Frederic the Great] drilled his people, as he drilled his grenadiers.”
- transitiveTo repeat an idea frequently in order to encourage someone to remember it.
“The instructor drilled into us the importance of reading the instructions.”
- figuratively, intransitiveTo investigate or examine something in more detail or at a different level
“Drill deeper and you may find the underlying assumptions faulty.”
- transitiveTo throw, run, hit or kick with a lot of power.
“He drilled down the court and made a three-pointer.”
“He drilled the ball to his teammate.”
“He did get their attention when he drilled the ball dead center into the hole for an opening birdie.”
- To hit someone with a pitch, especially in an intentional context.
- slangTo shoot; to kill by shooting.
“‘Matthew Garth woulda let Tom Dunstan drill him insteada drawin’ against him.’”
- transitiveTo sow (seeds) by dribbling them along a furrow or in a row.
- transitiveTo cause to flow in drills or rills or by trickling; to drain by trickling.
“waters drilled through a sandy stratum”
“Now it is a great square profunditie ; greene , and uneven at the bottome : into which a barren spring doch drill from betweene the stones of the North - ward wall”
- dialectal, obsolete, transitiveTo protract, lengthen out; fritter away, spend (time) aimlessly.
“Quit purposely drilling out the time hoping that someone else will do your chores.”
- dialectal, obsolete, transitiveTo entice or allure; to decoy; with on.
“He tells me with great passion that she has bubbled him out of his youth; that she drilled him on to five and fifty [years old], and that he verily believes she will drop him in his old age, if she ca”
- dialectal, obsolete, transitiveTo cause to slip or waste away by degrees.
“August 28, 1731, letter by Jonathan Swift to John Gay and Catherine Douglas, Duchess of Queensberry
This cursed accident hath drilled away the whole summer.”
- A tool or machine used to remove material so as to create a hole, typically by plunging a rotating cutting bit into a stationary workpiece.
“Wear safety glasses when operating an electric drill.”
- The portion of a drilling tool that drives the bit.
“Use a drill with a wire brush to remove any rust or buildup.”
- An activity done as an exercise or practice (especially a military exercise), particularly in preparation for some possible future event or occurrence.
“Regular fire drills can ensure that everyone knows how to exit safely in an emergency.”
““[…] if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand”
- A short and highly repeatable sports training exercise designed to hone a particular skill that may be useful in competition.
“At today's practice, the football team performed a variety of goalkeeping drills.”
- Any of several molluscs, of the genus Urosalpinx and others, especially the oyster drill (Urosalpinx cinerea), that make holes in the shells of their prey.
- uncountableA style of trap music with gritty, violent lyrics, originating on the South Side of Chicago.
“Though the young women of Chicago’s drill scene can be as rowdy as their male counterparts, they’re also more diverse in subject matter and point to a possible way forward.”
“New York City mayor Eric Adams held a summit with a group of drill rappers on Tuesday night and clarified he doesn’t actually want to ban their music, days after he appeared to blame the music scene f”
“Between ticky off-kilter rhythms and otherworldly digital voice processing, the experimental hip-hop genres trap and drill have delivered radical hymns from alien planets.”
- countableA single performance of drill music.
“These bells are alarmin’
Point blank and you missed your target
They go shooting range and their drills are garbage”
- An agricultural implement for making holes for sowing seed, and sometimes so formed as to contain seeds and drop them into the hole made.
“I found down at the side of the house the remains of what must have once been a kitchen garden. Everything was choked with weeds and scutch grass, but the outlines of bed and drill were still there.”
- A light furrow or channel made to put seed into, when sowing.
- A row of seed sown in a furrow.
- obsoleteA small trickling stream; a rill.
“Springs through the pleasant meadows pour their drills.”
- An Old World monkey of West Africa, Mandrillus leucophaeus, similar in appearance to the mandrill, but lacking the colorful face.
- countable, uncountableA strong, durable cotton fabric with a strong bias (diagonal) in the weave.
Formsdrills(present, singular, third-person) · drilling(participle, present) · drilled(participle, past) · drilled(past) · drills(plural)