fill

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See also fíll

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[edit] English

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[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Etymology 1

Old English fyllan.

[edit] Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To occupy fully, to take up all of.
    • circa 1761, Tobias Smollett, translator, 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 []
    • circa 1860, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, chapter 38:
      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. (transitive) To add contents to (a container, cavity, or the like) so that it is full.
    • 1950, Arthur W. Upfield, The Bachelors of Broken Hill, chapter 11:
      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, 2006 edition, ISBN 0758207484, page 10 [1]:
      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, B&H, page 95 [2]:
      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."
  3. To enter (something), making it full.
    • 1910 May 13, John C. Sherwin, opinion, Delashmutt et al. v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. et al., reprinted in volume 126, Northwestern 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, Ashgate, ISBN 0754624072, page 322 [3]:
      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.'
  4. (intransitive) To become full of contents.
    The bucket filled with rain.
  5. (intransitive) To become pervaded with something.
    My heart filled with joy.
  6. (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.
  7. (transitive) To install someone, or be installed, in (a position or office), eliminating a vacancy.
    Sorry, no more applicants. The position has been filled.
    • 1866, Bedford Pim, The Negro, pages 18–19 [4]:
      It is impossible to resist the conclusion, which experience and history tend to prove, that, the continuous movement of such a vast body of mankind has been influenced by natural laws, that, the negro has filled the position for which he is fitted by nature, and, that, his services were brought into use when the emergency arose necessitating his employment.
    • 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.
  8. (transitive) To treat (a tooth) by adding a dental filling to it.
    • 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 [5]:
      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.
[edit] Synonyms
  • (occupy fully, take up all of): pervade
[edit] Antonyms
  • (add contents to a container or cavity): empty
  • (to become full): empty
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Related terms
[edit] Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

[edit] Etymology 2

Old English fyllu, from Proto-Germanic *fullīn. Cognate with German Fülle.

[edit] Noun

fill (plural fills)

  1. (after a possessive) A sufficient or more than sufficient amount.
    Don't feed him anymore, he's had his fill.
  2. An amount that fills a container.
    The mixer returned to the plant for another fill.
  3. The filling of a container.
    That machine can do 20 fills a minute.
  4. Inexpensive material used to occupy empty spaces, especially in construction.
    The ruins of earlier buildings were used as fill for more recent construction.
  5. (archaeology) Soil and/or human-created debris discovered within a cavity and exposed by excavation; fill soil.
[edit] Derived terms
[edit] Translations

[edit] Albanian

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

fill m. (plural fije)

  1. thread, yarn.

[edit] Adverb

fill

  1. at once, immediately.

[edit] Catalan

[edit] Etymology

From Latin filius. Cognate to French fils.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

fill m. (plural fills)

  1. son

[edit] Irish

[edit] Etymology

From Old Irish fillid (turns back), from Proto-Celtic *wel-n-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (turn); compare German walzen (roll), Latin volvō (turn)

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Verb

fill

  1. to turn back
  2. to return
  3. to fold
  4. (biology, geology, medicine) to plicate
  5. (of symptoms): to recur

[edit] Inflection

[edit] Mutation

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.
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