Library / English Dictionary

TILL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A strongbox for holding cash

Synonyms:

cashbox; money box; till

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("till" is a kind of...):

deedbox; strongbox (a strongly made box for holding money or valuables; can be locked)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "till"):

cash register; register (a cashbox with an adding machine to register transactions; used in shops to add up the bill)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A treasury for government funds

Synonyms:

public treasury; till; trough

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Hypernyms ("till" is a kind of...):

exchequer; treasury (the funds of a government or institution or individual)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Unstratified soil deposited by a glacier; consists of sand and clay and gravel and boulders mixed together

Synonyms:

boulder clay; till

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("till" is a kind of...):

dirt; soil (the part of the earth's surface consisting of humus and disintegrated rock)

Derivation:

till (work land as by ploughing, harrowing, and manuring, in order to make it ready for cultivation)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Work land as by ploughing, harrowing, and manuring, in order to make it ready for cultivation

Example:

till the soil

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "till" is one way to...):

process; work; work on (shape, form, or improve a material)

"Till" entails doing...:

crop; cultivate; work (prepare for crops)

Domain category:

agriculture; farming; husbandry (the practice of cultivating the land or raising stock)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "till"):

plough; plow; turn (to break and turn over earth especially with a plow)

hoe (dig with a hoe)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

till (unstratified soil deposited by a glacier; consists of sand and clay and gravel and boulders mixed together)

tillage (the cultivation of soil for raising crops)

tillage (arable land that is worked by plowing and sowing and raising crops)

tiller (a farm implement used to break up the surface of the soil (for aeration and weed control and conservation of moisture))

tiller (someone who tills land (prepares the soil for the planting of crops))

tilling (cultivation of the land in order to raise crops)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The species will move from the high concentration area to the low concentration area till the concentration is uniform in the whole phase.

(Diffusion, NCI Thesaurus)

The WHO is also waiting till 2015.

(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)

He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

“I’m going through this house till I do find her.”

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Sir Humphrey Tennant of Ashby may till his own fields for me,” he cried.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I shall say nothing till I have seen the body,” said he; “this may be very serious. Have the kindness to wait while I dress.”

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

More of them would come in on the morrow, and on the next day, and the next, till they were all in.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was dawn by three in the morning, and twilight lingered till nine at night.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I slept till late in the day, and awoke of my own accord.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He waited calmly till the uproar died down.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)