English

Proper noun

Till

1. A river in Northumberland, England, tributary to the Tweed.
   • Traditional saying:

     Tweed says to Till:
     "What gars ye rin sae still ?"
     Till says to Tweed:
     "Tho ye rin wi' speed
     And I rin slaw
     Whar ye droon ae man,
     I droon twa !"

German

Etymology

Medieval diminutive of compound given names beginning with Diet- (such as Dieter or Dietrich), from the Old High German element thoit ‎(“people”).

Proper noun

Till m ‎(genitive Tills)

1. A male given name.

Related terms

• Tillmann, Tilmann, Tilman

English

Related terms

• glacial till

Preposition

till

1. (now dialectal) To.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, Bk.XVIII, Ch.vii:

     Than the knyghtes parters of the lystis toke up Sir Madore and led hym tylle hys tente.

   • 1854, Prof. John Wilson, The Genius and Character of Burns, p.194 (Google preview):

     Similar sentiments will recur to everyone familiar with his writings all through them till the very end.

2. Until, up to, as late as (a given time).

   I have to work till eight o'clock tonight.‎

   She stayed till the very end.‎

Synonyms

• (until): til (nonstandard), 'til (nonstandard), until

Translations

Conjunction

till

1. Until, until the time that.

   Maybe you can, maybe you can't: you won't know till you try.

   • 1582, Douay–Rheims Bible, Song of Songs 2:7:

     […] that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, till she please.

   • 1846, Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense:

     She twirled round and round, / Till she sunk underground, […]

   • 1912, anonymous, Punky Dunk and the Mouse, P.F. Volland & Co.:

     And the Mouse sat and laughed till he cried.

Synonyms

• (until): til (nonstandard), 'til (nonstandard), until

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English tillen ‎(“to draw”) from Old English *tyllan (as in betyllan ‎(“to lure, decoy”) and fortyllan ‎(“to draw away”); related to tollian). Cognate with Albanian ndjell ‎(“I lure, attract”).

Or alternatively from Anglo-Norman tylle ‎(“compartment”) from Old French tille ‎(“compartment, shelter on a ship”) from Old Norse þilja ‎(“plank”).

Noun

till ‎(plural tills)

1. A cash register.
2. A removable box within a cash register containing the money.

   Pull all the tills and lock them in the safe.

3. The contents of a cash register, for example at the beginning or end of the day or of a cashier's shift.

   My count of my till was 30 dollars short.

4. (obsolete) A tray or drawer in a chest.

Derived terms

• have one's hand in the till

Translations

Etymology 3

From Old English tilian.

Verb

till ‎(third-person singular simple present tills, present participle tilling, simple past and past participle tilled)

1. (transitive) To develop so as to improve or prepare for usage; to cultivate (said of knowledge, virtue, mind etc.).
2. (transitive) To work or cultivate or plough (soil); to prepare for growing vegetation and crops.
   • Bible, Genesis iii. 23

     The Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

3. (intransitive) To cultivate soil.
4. (obsolete) To prepare; to get.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of W. Browne to this entry?)

Quotations

• For usage examples of this term, see Citations:till.

Translations

Etymology 4

Unknown, but possibly via etymology 3 (the verb) because alluvial deposit is used as a fertilizer.

Noun

till ‎(plural tills)

1. glacial drift consisting of a mixture of clay, sand, pebbles and boulders
2. (dialect) manure or other material used to fertilize land

Translations

Etymology 5

Shortened from lentil.

Noun

till ‎(plural tills)

1. A vetch; a tare.

References

• till in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• till in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

References

1. ↑ “till” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).

Statistics

Anagrams

• it'll, lilt

Estonian

Noun

till ‎(genitive tilli, partitive tilli)

1. dill (herb)
2. (slang) ****

Declension

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tʰʲiːʎ/

Verb

till ‎(past thill, future tillidh, verbal noun tilleadh, past participle tillte)

1. to return, come back
2. to relapse
   • Thill ris.‎ ― He has got a relapse.

References

• A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language (John Grant, Edinburgh, 1925, Compiled by Malcolm MacLennan)

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish til, from Old Norse til, from Proto-Germanic *tila- ‎(“goal”), from Proto-Indo-European *ád ‎(“near, at”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɪl/

Preposition

till

1. to

   Välkommen till Sverige!

   Welcome to Sweden!

   Ge den till mig.

   Give it to me.

   Vi behöver två till fem nya datorer.

   We need two to five new computers.

2. for

   en bra TV till ett bra pris

   a good TV for a good price

   Vad vill du ha till middags?

   What do you want for dinner?

   en present till min syster

   a present for my sister

   pengar till resan

   money for a trip

3. with

   Jag tar mjölk till mitt kaffe

   I take milk with my coffee

Usage notes

• Earlier, till governed the genitive case. Remains can still be found in certain expressions: tillbaka ‎(“back”), till bords ‎(“to the table”), till buds ‎(“to aid, at hand”), till doms ‎(“to judgement”), tillfreds ‎(“at peace, content”), till godo ‎(“for good, as credit”), till hands ‎(“at hand”), tillhanda ‎(“at hand, available”), till havs ‎(“to sea”), till kojs ‎(“to bed”), till kungs ‎(“to the king”), till lags ‎(“of service, to please”), till lands ‎(“on land”), till livs ‎(“to life, to eat”), till påska ‎(“until Easter”), till reds ‎(“to aid”), till sjöss ‎(“to sea”), till skogs ‎(“to the forest”), till sängs ‎(“to bed”), till torgs ‎(“to the market”), till vägs ände ‎(“to the end of the road”), till väders ‎(“in the air”)

Derived terms

• hur står det till?

Adverb

till

1. another; in addition
   • Jag ska vara här en vecka till.
     • I'll be here for another week.