drill
/dɹɪl/ verb, noun
- verb (transitive) To create (a hole) by removing material with a drill (tool). “Drill a small hole to start the screw in the right direction.”
- verb (intransitive) To practice, especially in (or as in) a military context. “They drilled daily to learn the routine exactly.”
- verb (ergative) To cause to drill (practice); to train, especially in military arts. “The sergeant was up by 6:00 every morning, drilling his troops.”
- verb (transitive) To repeat an idea frequently in order to encourage someone to remember it. “The instructor drilled into us the importance of reading the instructions.”
- verb (intransitive, figurative) To investigate or examine something in more detail or at a different level “Drill deeper and you may find the underlying assumptions faulty.”
- verb (transitive) To throw, run, hit or kick with a lot of power. “He drilled down the court and made a three-pointer.”
- verb (baseball) To hit someone with a pitch, especially in an intentional context.
- verb (slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse with; to penetrate.
- noun 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.”
- noun The portion of a drilling tool that drives the bit. “Use a drill with a wire brush to remove any rust or buildup.”
- noun An activity done as an exercise or practice (especially a military exercise), particularly in preparation for some possible future event or occurrence. “fire drill”
- noun 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.”
- noun 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.
- noun (uncountable, music) A style of trap music with gritty, violent lyrics, originating on the South Side of Chicago.
- noun (countable, music) A single performance of drill music.
- noun An agricultural implement for making holes for sowing seed, and sometimes so formed as to contain seeds and drop them into the hole made.
- noun A light furrow or channel made to put seed into, when sowing.
- noun A row of seed sown in a furrow.
- verb (transitive) To sow (seeds) by dribbling them along a furrow or in a row.
- noun (obsolete) A small trickling stream; a rill.
Synonyms
excavate bore gouge plow poke root shaft Formal terms bed coit coitize dight enjoy feague go in unto go to bed with have know lie by lie with Mandrillus leucophaeus exercise practice practice session recitation practise
Etymology
From Middle Dutch drillen (“bore, move in a circle”).
Perhaps the same as Etymology 3; compare German Rille which can also mean "small furrow".
Uncertain. Compare the same sense of trill, and German trillen, drillen. Attestation predates Etymology 1.
From Middle English drillen (“to delay, defer, put off”), of origin unknown.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To pierce or bore with a drill, or a with a drill; to perforate; as, to drill a hole into a rock; to drill a piece of metal.
- verb To train in the military art; to exercise diligently, as soldiers, in military evolutions and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline.
- verb To practice an exercise or exercises; to train one's self.
- noun An instrument with an edged or pointed end used for making holes in hard substances; strictly, a tool that cuts with its end, by revolving, as in drilling metals, or by a succession of blows, as in drilling stone; also, a drill press.
Etymology [D. drillen to bore, drill (soldiers); probably akin to AS. pyrlian, pyrelian, to pierce. See Thrill.]
Etymology [Cf. Trill to trickle, Trickle, Dribble, and W. rhillio to put in a row, drill.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “drill”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details