Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large monkey (Mandrillus leucophaeus) of west-central African forests, having an olive brown body and a brightly colored face and resembling the mandrill.
  • noun An implement with cutting edges or a pointed end for boring holes in hard materials, usually by a rotating abrasion or repeated blows; a bit.
  • noun The hand-operated or hand-powered holder for this implement.
  • noun A loud, harsh noise made by or as if by a powered tool of this kind.
  • noun Disciplined, repetitious exercise as a means of teaching and perfecting a skill or procedure.
  • noun A task or exercise for teaching a skill or procedure by repetition.
  • noun The training of soldiers in marching and the manual of arms.
  • noun Any of various marine gastropod mollusks, chiefly of the genus Urosalpinx, that bore holes into the shells of bivalve mollusks. U. cinera is destructive to oysters.
  • intransitive verb To make a hole in (a hard material) with a drill.
  • intransitive verb To make (a hole) with or as if with a drill.
  • intransitive verb To strike or hit sharply.
  • intransitive verb To instruct thoroughly by repetition in a skill or procedure.
  • intransitive verb To infuse knowledge of or skill in by repetitious instruction: synonym: teach.
  • intransitive verb To train (soldiers) in marching and the manual of arms.
  • intransitive verb To make a hole with or as if with a drill.
  • intransitive verb To perform a training exercise.
  • noun Durable cotton or linen twill of varying weights, generally used for work clothes.
  • noun A shallow trench or furrow in which seeds are planted.
  • noun A row of planted seeds.
  • noun A machine or implement for planting seeds in holes or furrows.
  • transitive verb To sow (seeds) in rows.
  • transitive verb To plant (a field) in drills.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To trill; trickle; flow gently.
  • To drain; draw off in drains or streams: as, water drilled through a boggy soil.
  • noun A trade-name for drilling: often used in the plural.
  • noun A sip, as of water.
  • noun A rill.
  • noun An apparatus used with a boring-tool which cuts on its end and is fed into the hole by a gimlet point, or with a tool such as is ordinarily turned by hand.
  • To pierce or make a hole in with a drill or a similar tool, or as if with a drill.
  • To make with a drill: as, to drill a hole.
  • 3 To wear away or waste slowly.
  • To instruct and exercise in military tactics and the use of arms; hence, to train in anything with the practical thoroughness characteristic of military training.
  • On American railroads, to shift (cars or locomotives) about, or run them back and forth, at a terminus or station, in order to get them into the desired position.
  • 6 To draw on; entice; decoy.
  • [⟨ drill, n., 4.] In agri.: To sow in rows, drills, or channels: as, to drill wheat.
  • To sow with seed in drills: as, the field was drilled, not sown broadcast.
  • To go through exercises in military tactics.
  • To sow seed in drills.
  • noun In zoology, a baboon.
  • noun Specifically, Mormon or Cynocephalus leucophæus, a baboon of western Africa, closely related to the mandrill, but smaller, with a black visage, and a stumpy erect tail scarcely two inches long.
  • noun A tool for boring holes in metal, stone, or other hard substance; specifically, a steel cutting-tool fixed to a drill-stock, bow-lathe, or drilling-machine. See cuts under bow-drill, brace-drill, and cramp-drill.
  • noun In mining, a borer: the more common term in the United States.
  • noun In agriculture, a machine for planting seeds, as of grasses, wheat, oats, corn, etc., by dropping them in rows and covering them with earth.
  • noun A row of seeds deposited in the earth.
  • noun The trench or channel in which the seeds are deposited.
  • noun A shell-fish which is destructive to oyster-beds by boring into the shells of young oysters.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Possibly of West African origin.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Obsolete Dutch dril, from drillen, to bore, from Middle Dutch drillen; see terə- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for drilling, alteration of German Drillich, from Middle High German drilich, threefold, fabric woven with three threads, from Old High German drilīh, alteration (influenced by drī, three, and -līh, adj. suff.) of Latin trilīx, triple-twilled; see trellis.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps from drill, rill, from Middle English drille, sip.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Abbreviation of drilling.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle Dutch drillen ("bore, move in a circle")

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Examples

Comments

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  • To drill a man on, to decoy or flatter a man into any thing; also to amuse with delays. --old term from the south of England cited in Grose's A Provincial Dictionary, 1787.

    You get the drill.

    May 5, 2011