tiller

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɪlə/
• Rhymes: -ɪlə(ɹ)

Etymology 1

From Middle English tilier; equivalent to till +‎ -er.

Noun

tiller (plural tillers)

1. A person who tills; a farmer.
   • 2000, Alasdair Gray, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury 2002, page 63:

     In France, Europe's most fertile and cultivated land, the tillers of it suffered more and more hunger.

2. A machine that mechanically tills the soil.

Synonyms

• (machine): cultivator

Derived terms

• Tiller
• Tillerson

Translations

person

• Arabic: زَارِع (zāriʕ)
• Danish: landmand (da) c
• Dutch: boer (nl), landman (nl)
• Finnish: maanviljelijä (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• French: fermier (fr) m, paysan (fr) m
• Hungarian: kapás, kapáló ember
• Italian: aratore (it) m

machine

• Dutch: graafmachine (nl)
• Finnish: kultivaattori
• French: excavatrice (fr) f
• German: Fräse (de) f, Motorpflug m (colloquial)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: kapálógép
• Italian: aratro (it)
• Spanish: arado cincel m, cultivador (es) m, motoarado m
• Swedish: jordfräs (sv) c

See also

• motor plow

Etymology 2

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English *tilȝer, *telȝer, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English telgor, telgra, telgre ("twig, branch, shoot") (also telga, telge (whence tillow)), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *telgô, *telgǭ, *telguz (“twig, branch”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *delgʰ- (“to split, divide, cut, carve”). Cognate with Dutch telg (“descendant, scion, offshoot, shoot”), Dutch Low Saxon telge (“twig, branch”), German Zelge (“twig, branch, bough”), Swedish telning (“branch, scion, sapling”), Icelandic tág (“willow-twig”).

Alternative forms

• tillow

Noun

tiller (plural tillers)

1. (obsolete) A young tree.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Evelyn to this entry?)

2. A shoot of a plant which springs from the root or bottom of the original stalk; a sapling; a sucker.

Verb

tiller (third-person singular simple present tillers, present participle tillering, simple past and past participle tillered)

1. (intransitive) To produce new shoots from the root or from around the bottom of the original stalk; stool.

Translations

put forth new shoots

• Finnish: versoa
• Greek: αδελφώνω (el) (adelfóno)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: accestire

Etymology 3

(deprecated template usage) [etyl]  telier (“beam used in weaving”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl]  telarium, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin tēla (“web”).

Noun

tiller (plural tillers)

1. (archery) The stock; a beam on a crossbow carved to fit the arrow, or the point of balance in a longbow.
   • Beaumont and Fletcher

     You can shoot in a tiller.

2. (nautical) A bar of iron or wood connected with the rudderhead and leadline, usually forward, in which the rudder is moved as desired by the tiller (FM 55-501).
3. (nautical) The handle of the rudder which the helmsman holds to steer the boat, a piece of wood or metal extending forward from the rudder over or through the transom. Generally attached at the top of the rudder.
4. A handle; a stalk.
5. The rear-wheel steering control, aboard a tiller truck.
6. (UK, dialect, obsolete) A small drawer; a till.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

Derived terms

• steady hand on the tiller
• tiller extension
• tiller truck
• tillerman

Translations

part of the rudder

• Catalan: arjau m
• Danish: rorpind c
• Finnish: pinna (fi)
• French: barre (fr) f
• Galician: cana (gl) f
• German: Pinne (de) f, Helmstock m
• Hebrew: יָדִית הֶגֶה (he) f (yadit hegeh)
• Hungarian: kormányrúd (hu), hajókormány (hu)
• Icelandic: stjórnvölur m
• Irish: halmadóir m, maide stiúrach m
• Latin: ansa f
• Low German:

  German Low German: Helmholt (nds), Pinn

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rorkult m, rorpinne m

• Polish: rumpel (pl) m
• Portuguese: cana do leme f
• Scottish Gaelic: failm f, falmadair m
• Serbo-Croatian: kormilo (sh) n
• Spanish: caña del timón f
• Swahili: ujari (sw)
• Swedish: rorkult (sv) c
• Welsh: llyw (cy) m
• Westrobothnian: ,

References

• “tiller”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “tiller”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• rillet