English

Alternative forms

• megilla

Noun

megillah ‎(plural megillahs or megillot or megilloth)

1. (Judaism) any of the Five Scrolls of the Hebrew Scriptures (Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther)
2. (Judaism, specifically) the Book of Esther

Etymology 2

From Yiddish מגילה ‎(megile, “megillah”), from Hebrew מגילה \ מְגִלָּה ‎(m'gilá, “scroll”).

Noun

megillah ‎(plural megillahs)

1. Any long, boring story.
   • 1997, Don DeLillo, Underworld:

     You can’t name it. It’s too big or evil or outside your experience. It’s also **** because it’s garbage, it’s waste material. But I’m making a whole big megillah out of this. What I really want to get at is the ordinary thing, the ordinary life behind the thing.