fill

• enPR: fĭl, IPA^(key): /fɪl/, [fɪɫ]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl
• Homophone: Phil

From Middle English fillen, fullen, from Old English fyllan (“to fill, fill up, replenish, satisfy; complete, fulfill”), from Proto-West Germanic *fullijan, from Proto-Germanic *fullijaną (“to make full, fill”), from *fullaz (“full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”).

Cognate with Scots fill (“to fill”), West Frisian folje (“to fill”), Low German füllen (“to fill”), Dutch vullen (“to fill”), German füllen (“to fill”), Danish fylde (“to fill”), Swedish fylla (“to fill”), Norwegian fylle (“to fill”), Icelandic fylla (“to fill”) and Latin plenus (“full”)

fill (third-person singular simple present fills, present participle filling, simple past and past participle filled)

1. (transitive, ergative) To make full
   1. To add contents to (a container, cavity, or the like) so that it is full.

      She filled a glass with milk.

      • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

        My hopes wa'n't disappointed. I never saw clams thicker than they was along them inshore flats. I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out. Clams was fairly scarce over that side of the bay and ought to fetch a fair price.

      • 1950, Arthur W. Upfield, chapter 11, in The Bachelors of Broken Hill:

        She continued to frown as she filled Bony's cup and added brandy to her own.

      • 2005, Wendy Coakley-Thompson, What You Won't Do for Love‎^[1], published 2006, →ISBN, page 10:

        She forgave him the pain as he filled the cavity in her back molar. Three weeks later, she let him fill a more intimate cavity.

      • 2006, Gilbert Morris, Sante Fe Woman‎^[2], B&H, page 95:

        Grat Herendeen was the first man, a huge man with his bull whip coiled and over his shoulder seeming almost a part of him. He grinned at her as she filled his plate with the eggs and motioned toward the bacon. "Help yourself, Grat."

   2. To enter (something), making it full.

      The doors opened and guests filled the auditorium.

      • 1910 May 13, John C. Sherwin, opinion, Delashmutt et al. v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. et al., reprinted in volume 126, North Western Reporter, page 359, at 360:

        In the evening of the 14th of July, there was a rainfall of 3 or 3½ inches in that locality. The water filled the ditch so full that it overflowed the levees on both sides in many places […] .

      • 2004, Peter Westen, The Logic of Consent‎^[3], Ashgate, →ISBN, page 322:

        As the crowd filled the aisles, S repeated loudly what he had announced upon entering the stadium: 'I don't want anyone to touch me, and I will call the police if anyone does.'

   3. To occupy fully, to take up all of.

      The smell of spring filled the air.

      The room filled with thick smoke.

      • c. 1761, Tobias Smollett, transl., Don Quixote, part 2, book 5, chapter 4:

        […] the drums began to thunder, the sound of trumpets filled the air, the earth trembled beneath their feet, and the hearts of the gazing multitude throbbed with suspense and expectation […]

      • 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter XXXVIII, in Great Expectations […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC:

        And now that I have given the one chapter to the theme that so filled my heart, and so often made it ache and ache again, I pass on, unhindered, to the event that had impended over me longer yet […] .

2. (intransitive) To become full.
   1. (of containers, cavities, or the like)

      The bucket filled with rain

      The sails fill with wind

   2. To become pervaded with something.

      My heart filled with joy.

3. (transitive) To satisfy or obey (an order, request, or requirement).

   The pharmacist filled my prescription for penicillin.

   We can't let the library close! It fills a great need in the community.

   To qualify for a home loan, you need to fill a number of requirements.

4. (transitive) To install someone, or be installed, in (a position or office), eliminating a vacancy.
   • 1891 January 23, Allen Morse, opinion, Lawrence v. Hanley, reprinted in volume 47, Northwestern Reporter, page 753, at 755:

     The board of supervisors called a specal^[sic] election to fill the office, and at such special election Henry C. Andrews was elected judge of probate to fill out the said term.

   Sorry, no more applicants. The position has been filled.

5. (transitive) To treat (a tooth) by adding a dental filling to it.

   Dr. Smith filled Jim's cavity with silver amalgam.

   • a. 1891, "Intimate Diagnosis of Diseased Teeth", in Items of Interest: A Monthly Magazine of Dental Art, Science and Literature, volume 13, number 11, November 1891, page 657 [4]:

     Be that as it may, had the disturbance continued after our having filled the molar, and presuming that nothing had been done to the bicuspid, we might have been still as far as ever from knowing where the trouble lay.

6. (transitive) To block, obstruct

   The drains were filled with gunk and no water could flow off.

7. (transitive) To supply fully with food; to feed; to satisfy.

   Are all the children filled and ready for bed?

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 15:33:

     Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?

   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:

     Things that are sweet and fat are more filling.

8. (transitive, nautical) To trim (a yard) so that the wind blows on the after side of the sails.
9. (transitive, slang, vulgar, of a male) To have sexual intercourse with (a female).

   Did you fill that girl last night?

• (occupy fully, take up all of): pervade
• (have sexual intercourse with a female): dick, get up in, knob, swive; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

• (antonym(s) of “add contents to a container or cavity”): empty
• (antonym(s) of “to become full”): empty

• backfill
• polyfill
• refill

• full

From Middle English fille, vülle, fülle, from Old English fyllu, from Proto-West Germanic *fullī, from Proto-Germanic *fullį̄ (“fullness”). Cognate with German Fülle.

fill (countable and uncountable, plural fills)

1. (after a possessive) A sufficient or more than sufficient amount.

   Don't feed him any more: he's had his fill.

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:

     Then they set somewhat of food before me, whereof I ate my fill, and gave me somewhat of clothes wherewith I clad myself anew and covered my nakedness; after which they took me up into the ship, […]

2. An amount that fills a container.

   The mixer returned to the plant for another fill.

3. The filling of a container or area.

   That machine can do 20 fills a minute.

   This paint program supports lines, circles, and textured fills.

4. Inexpensive material used to occupy empty spaces, especially in construction.

   The ruins of earlier buildings were used as fill for more recent construction.

   • 1946, Digest of the Decisions of the Corps of Engineers Board of Contract Appeals, page 101:

     Strippage from a borrow area was first treated as waste, under the contract, but after passage of time was suitable for fill and was so used.

5. (archaeology) Soil and/or human-created debris discovered within a cavity or cut in the layers and exposed by excavation; fill soil.
6. An embankment, as in railroad construction, to fill a hollow or ravine; also, the place which is to be filled.
7. (music) A short passage, riff, or rhythmic sound that helps to keep the listener's attention during a break between the phrases of a melody.
   • 2015, Dawei Zheng, Control, Mechatronics and Automation Technology, →ISBN:

     The second part of recomposed Embroidering Golden Banner achieves the brightness and cheerfulness of music, and presents a cheerful passion through sanda playing methods such as left-hind octave fills, right-hand echo decoration, and encircled decoration.

   bass fill

• fill soil
• fill up

See thill.

fill (plural fills)

1. One of the thills or shafts of a carriage.
   • 2008, Martha E. Green, Pioneers in Pith Helmets:

     It was a challenge to learn to harness him, guide him slowly back between the fills of the carriage, then to fasten the right buckles and snaps, making the harness and buggy all ready for travel to church or to town.

Borrowed from Latin fīlum (“thread”).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /fiɫ̪/

fill m (definite fije, definite plural filli)

1. thread, yarn

fill

1. at once, immediately, alone
2. instant

• “fill”, in FGJSH: Fjalor i gjuhës shqipe (in Albanian), 2006

Inherited from Latin fīlius.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈfiʎ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iʎ

fill m (plural fills, feminine filla)

1. son

• fill de puta
• fillet

• afillar
• filial
• filla

• “fill” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “fill” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /fʲiːlʲ/
• (Galway) IPA^(key): /fʲiːl̠ʲ/
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /fʲɪl̠ʲ/
• Homophone: phill

From Old Irish fillid (“to bend, fold”), from Proto-Celtic *welnīti, from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to roll”) or *wel- (“to turn”).^[1] Compare German walzen (“to roll”), Latin volvō (“to turn”).

• pill (Ulster)

fill (present analytic filleann, future analytic fillfidh, verbal noun filleadh, past participle fillte)

1. to return, turn back

   D'fhill muid ar an óstán. ― We turned back to the hotel.

2. to bend, fold

   D'fhill sí an páipéar ina dhá leath nuair a bhí sí réidh leis.

   She folded the newspaper in two when she was done with it.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

fill

1. genitive singular of feall

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
fill	fhill	bhfill
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “fill”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• “fill”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “fillid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “fillim”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 314

fill

1. Alternative form of fille

fill

1. Alternative form of fillen

From Old Irish fillid (“turns back”), from Proto-Celtic *welneti, from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“turn”).

• IPA^(key): /fiːʎ/

fill (past dh'fhill, future fillidh, verbal noun filleadh, past participle fillte)

1. fold; plait; twill
2. imply
3. contain, include

• eadar-fhill (“intervolve”)

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “fill”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan‎^[5], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “fillid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language