till

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“
He would be there waiting for her till--till daylight.

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Definitions (42)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. transitive verb To prepare (land) for the raising of crops, as by plowing and harrowing; cultivate.
  2. preposition Until.
  3. conjunction Until.
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till:   tilled ·  tilling
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (9)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. Middle English tilen, from Old English tilian.
  2. Middle English, from Old English til, from Old Norse.
  3. Middle English tille.
  4. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. Early modern English also tille, tylle; from Middle English tillen, tyllen, earlier tilen, *tylen, tilien, tylien, telien, teolien, tolien, tulien, from Anglo-Saxon tilian, teolian, exert oneself for, strive for, aim at, labor, cultivate, till (land), = Old Saxon tilian, get, obtain, = OFries. tilia, get, beget, cultivate, till (land), = Middle Dutch telen, till (land). D. telen, raise, cultivate, breed, = Old Low German tīlōn, exert oneself, strive, hasten, attempt, till (land), Middle Low German telen, teilen, tellen, get, beget, till (land), = Old High German zilōn, zilēn, exert oneself, strive for, attempt, Middle High German zilen, ziln, strive for, aim at, aim, German zielen, aim, = Goth, tilōn, in comp. and-tilōn, hold to, accommodate oneself to, ga-tilōn, obtain, attain, ga-gatilōn, fit together (the senses in the different languages being various and involved); orig. ‘make fit’ (hence ‘prepare, work, adapt to use, cultivate, till’), from the adjective seen in Anglo-Saxon til, fit, good, excellent, profitable (later tela, teala, well), = OFries, til, good, = Goth, tils, also gatils, fit, good, convenient (an adjective prob. concerned also in English tall, good, excellent), and in the noun, Anglo-Saxon til, goodness, = Old High German Middle High German zil, German ziel, aim, goal, limit, = Icelandic *til, in secondary weak form tili or tīli, scope; prob. related to Old High German zīla, Middle High German zīle, German zeile, a line, row, Middle High German also a street; prob., with formative -l, from the √ ti seen also in tide and time (‘fit time,’ ‘opportunity,’ hence ‘fixed time,’ etc.); see tide, time. Hence ult. till, prep. Cf. toil.
  2. Early modern English also til (as also in until); from Middle English til, till, tyl, tille, tylle; from Old Northumbrian til (not found in Anglo-Saxon proper), from Icelandic til = Swedish till = Danish til, till, to: a very common preposition, taking the place in Scandinavian of to as used in English and the other Teut, tongues; prob. orig. accusative of a noun otherwise lost (as nouns used as adverbs, prepositions, or other particles tend to become; cf. aye, if, down, prep.) in Scandinavian, except as preserved in the secondary weak form Icelandic tili, tīli, scope, the noun thus used expressing aim, direction, purpose (or possibly continuous course, with something of the sense of the prob. related Old High German zīla, line ?): see till, v. See also until, in which the orig. noun can be more clearly observed.
  3. from Middle English tillen, tyllen, tullen (also tollen, later English toll), pull, allure, from Anglo-Saxon *tilian, in comp. *fortillan, spelled for-tyllan, lead astray, deceive (occurring only once). = OFries. tilla = Middle Dutch, Dutch tillen = Low German tillen, lift, move from its place, = Swedish dial. tille, take up (tille på sig, take upon oneself, lay hold of); other connections uncertain. Hence tiller. Cf. toll.
  4. Early modern English tyll; from till, v.
  5. Origin obscure.
 

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/tɪl/
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