Definitions

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

  • noun A small medicated or flavored tablet; a troche.
  • noun A tablet containing aromatic substances that is burned to fumigate or deodorize the air.
  • noun A pastel paste or crayon.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • See pastil.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A soft flavoured candy.
  • noun A medicinal pill, originally compressed herbs. A throat pastille is a large candy-like lozenge, which, when sucked, releases oils to soothe a sore throat and sometimes vapors to help unblock the nose or sinuses.
  • noun A small granular half spheroid piece of material.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a medicated lozenge used to soothe the throat

Etymologies

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

[French, from Spanish pastilla, perfume pellet, and Italian pastillo, pastille, both from Latin pāstillus, little loaf, medicine tablet, diminutive of pānis, bread; see pā- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

The sweets are named after Italian confectioner Giovanni Pastilla who made them for Marie de Medici.

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Examples

  • - in fabric design, "une pastille" is a large round spot - "un pois" (= pea) being smaller.

    machine à coudre - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • Scenes taken from mythology were done in what was known as "pastille," composition work raised and painted on a gold background.

    Woman as Decoration Emily Burbank

  • The words made their way over my tongue like a sweet pastille of possibility.

    French Word-A-Day: 2010

  • The words made their way over my tongue like a sweet pastille of possibility.

    machine à coudre - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • But he picked up a Chocorange and read the label on it: sugar-free, healthy, tooth-friendly, it said, only four calories per pastille.

    Portobello Ruth Rendell 2010

  • The words made their way over my tongue like a sweet pastille of possibility.

    French Word-A-Day: 2010

  • Noting the four Secret Service guns at the edge of the stage, I took one fearful precaution: having been sucking on lozenges all day (my throat was dry and I was scheduled to sing that night at the Class Cabaret), I gathered a few into my left hand rather than risk the ignominy of being shot down as I reached into my cutaway for a pastille.

    Colin Powell Changes His Tune Stephen Mo Hanan 2010

  • The words made their way over my tongue like a sweet pastille of possibility.

    machine à coudre - French Word-A-Day 2010

  • Noting the four Secret Service guns at the edge of the stage, I took one fearful precaution: having been sucking on lozenges all day (my throat was dry and I was scheduled to sing that night at the Class Cabaret), I gathered a few into my left hand rather than risk the ignominy of being shot down as I reached into my cutaway for a pastille.

    Stephen Mo Hanan: Colin Powell Changes His Tune 2010

  • We offer the pastille in our Entertainment Luxury line because it is multifunctional and great to relax and surf the net while sitting in your game room.

    The Pastille armchair & footstool from Leolux 2008

Comments

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  • 1451 Corpus Christi Acct. Rolls in A. F. Johnston & M. Rogerson Rec. Early. Eng. Drama: York (1979) I. 78 Item in pane subtili vocato symnell & Pastill vij s x d.

    July 12, 2008

  • "Two, three, four paces down the hall, past a pastille burner, and Billy steers me to the left into a blue-tiled bathroom."

    Forgetting Elena by Edmund White, p 122 of the Vintage International paperback edition

    November 21, 2009