Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home 		English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Quill   /kwɪl/   Listen
noun
Quill  n.  
1.
One of the large feathers of a bird's wing, or one of the rectrices of the tail; also, the stock of such a feather.
2.
A pen for writing made by sharpening and splitting the point or nib of the stock of a feather; as, history is the proper subject of his quill.
3.
(Zool.)
(a)
A spine of the hedgehog or porcupine.
(b)
The pen of a squid. See Pen.
4.
(Mus.)
(a)
The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.
(b)
The tube of a musical instrument. "He touched the tender stops of various quills."
5.
Something having the form of a quill; as:
(a)
The fold or plain of a ruff.
(b)
(Weaving) A spindle, or spool, as of reed or wood, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.
(c)
(Mach.) A hollow spindle.
6.
(Pharm.) A roll of dried bark; as, a quill of cinnamon or of cinchona.
Quill bit, a bit for boring resembling the half of a reed split lengthways and having its end sharpened like a gouge.
Quill driver, one who works with a pen; a writer; a clerk. (Jocose)
Quill nib, a small quill pen made to be used with a holder.


verb
Quill  v. t.  (past & past part. quilled; pres. part. quilling)  
1.
To plaint in small cylindrical ridges, called quillings; as, to quill a ruffle. "His cravat seemed quilled into a ruff."
2.
To wind on a quill, as thread or yarn.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words


Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar




"Quill" Quotes from Famous Books



... often observed them playing on a kind of trumpet, to which we answered with the instruments that were on board our vessel. These people were of a colour between brown and yellow, their hair long, and almost as thick as that of the Japanese, combed up, and fixed on the top of their heads with a quill, or some such thing, that was thickest in the middle, in the very same manner that Japanese fastened their hair behind their heads. These people cover the middle of their bodies, some with a kind of mat, others with a sort of woollen cloth, ...
— Early Australian Voyages • John Pinkerton
... too for the Aiakidai in Pelion sang the Muses' choir most fair, and in the midst Apollo playing with golden quill upon his seven-toned lyre led them in ever-changing strains. They first of all from Zeus beginning sang of holy Thetis and of Peleus, and how that Kretheus' dainty daughter Hippolyte would fain have caught him by her wile, and ...
— The Extant Odes of Pindar • Pindar
... deal about his business, and how he liked it, and whether he made any money at it. Morgan leaned back on the hinder legs of his chair, having finished his supper, and fumbled in his waistcoat pocket for his goose-quill pick. He winked at Isom on the footing of one shrewd man to another as he applied the quill to his ...
— The Bondboy • George W. (George Washington) Ogden
... a regular graver to write this chapter of horrors. No goose quill could afford me any assistance. Now then. Let me see——(Reads, and during his reading Barnstaple comes in at the door behind him, unperceived.) "At this most monstrously appalling sight, the hair of Piftlianteriscki raised slowly the velvet cap ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat
... letter-writing always appeared to me a great undertaking; but Aunt Henshaw, having one afternoon provided me with pen, ink, and paper, and elevated me nicely with the large Bible and my "Pilgrim's Progress," I sat biting the end of my quill, and pondering over some form of commencement. I had already written "dear mother" at the top; at length I added ...
— A Grandmother's Recollections • Ella Rodman


More quotes...


Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com