till
/tɪl/ preposition, conjunction, noun, verb, proper noun
Forms tills tilling tilled 'til til
- preposition Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time). “She stayed till the very end.”
- preposition Before (a certain time or event). “It's twenty till two. (1:40)”
- preposition (obsolete or dialectal) To, up to (physically). “They led him till his tent”
- preposition (obsolete or dialectal) To, toward (in attitude).
- preposition (dialectal) So that (something may happen).
- conjunction Until, until the time that. “Maybe you can, maybe you can't: you won't know till you try.”
- noun (chiefly UK) A cash register.
- noun A removable box within a cash register containing the money. “Pull all the tills and lock them in the safe.”
- noun The contents of a cash register, for example at the beginning or end of the day or of a cashier's shift. “My count of my till was 30 dollars short.”
- noun A cash drawer in a bank, used by a teller.
- noun (obsolete) A tray or drawer in a chest.
- verb (transitive) To develop so as to improve or prepare for usage; to cultivate (said of knowledge, virtue, mind etc.).
- verb (transitive) To work or cultivate or plough (soil); to prepare for growing vegetation and crops.
- verb (intransitive) To cultivate soil.
- verb (obsolete) To prepare; to get.
- noun glacial drift consisting of a mixture of clay, sand, pebbles and boulders
- noun (dialect) manure or other material used to fertilize land
- noun A vetch; a tare.
- proper noun (uncountable) A river in Northumberland, England, tributary to the Tweed.
- proper noun (uncountable) A river in Wiltshire, England.
Synonyms
'til until unto while whilom River Till boulder clay public treasury trough cashbox money box
Etymology
From Middle English til, from Northern Old English til, from or akin to Old Norse til (“to, till”); both from Proto-Germanic *til (“to, toward”), from Proto-Germanic *tilą (“planned point in time”). Not a contraction of until; rather, until comes from till with the prefix un- (“against; toward; up to”) also found in unto. Cognate with Old Frisian til (“to, till”), Danish til (“to”), Swedish till (“to, till”), Icelandic til (“to, till”). Also related to Old English til (“good”), German Ziel (“goal”), Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌻 (til, “something fitting or suitable”).
From Middle English tylle (“till”), possibly from Middle English tillen (“to draw”) from Old English *tyllan (“to draw, attract”) (as in betyllan (“to lure, decoy”) and fortyllan (“to draw away”); related to *tollian > Middle English tollen). Cognate with Albanian ndjell (“to lure, attract”).
Alternatively, Middle English tylle is from Anglo-Norman tylle (“compartment”), from Old French tille (“compartment, shelter on a ship”), from Old Norse þilja (“plank”).
From Middle English tilyen, from Old English tilian.
Unknown, but possibly via etymology 3 (the verb) because alluvial deposit is used as a fertilizer.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A vetch; a tare. [Prov. Eng.]
- noun A drawer. Specifically: (a) A tray or drawer in a chest. (b) A money drawer in a shop or store. Till alarm, a device for sounding an alarm when a money drawer is opened or tampered with.
- noun A deposit of clay, sand, and gravel, without lamination, formed in a glacier valley by means of the waters derived from the melting glaciers; --sometimes applied to alluvium of an upper river terrace, when not laminated, and appearing as if formed in the same manner.
- noun A kind of coarse, obdurate land. Loudon.
Etymology [Abbrev. from lentil.]
Etymology [Properly, a drawer, from OE. tillen to draw. See Tiller the lever of a rudder.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “till”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details