pills

pill ¹  (pl)

n.

1. A small pellet or tablet of medicine, often coated, taken by swallowing whole or by chewing.

2. Informal An oral contraceptive. Used with the.

3. Slang Something, such as a baseball, that resembles a pellet of medicine.

4. Something both distasteful and necessary.

5. Slang An insipid or ill-natured person.

v. pilled, pil·ling, pills

v.tr.

1. To dose with pills.

2. To make into pills.

3. Slang To blackball.

v.intr.

To form small balls resembling pills: a sweater that pills.

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[Middle English pille, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German pille and Old French pile, all from Latin pilula, diminutive of pila, ball.]

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pill ²  (pl)

v. pilled, pil·ling, pills

v.intr. Chiefly British

To come off, as in flakes or scales.

v.tr. Archaic

To subject to extortion.

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[Middle English pillen, to plunder, peel, from Old English pilian; see peel¹ and from Old French piller, to plunder; see pillage.]

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pills [pɪlz]

pl n

(Life Sciences & Allied Applications / Anatomy) a slang word for testicles