Pill (?), n. [Cf. Peel skin, or Pillion.]
The peel or skin.
[Obs.] "Some be covered over with crusts, or hard
pills, as the locusts."
Holland.
© Webster 1913.
Pill, v. i.
To be peeled; to peel off in flakes.
© Webster 1913.
Pill, v. t. [Cf. L. pilare to deprive of hair, and E. pill, n. (above).]
1.
To deprive of hair; to make bald.
[Obs.]
2.
To peel; to make by removing the skin.
[Jacob] pilled white streaks . . . in the rods.
Gen. xxx. 37.
© Webster 1913.
Pill (?), v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Pilled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Pilling.] [F. piller, L. pilare; cf. It. pigliare to take. Cf. Peel to plunder.]
To rob; to plunder; to pillage; to peel. See Peel, to plunder.
[Obs.]
Spenser.
Pillers and robbers were come in to the field to pill and to rob.
Sir T. Malroy.
© Webster 1913.
Pill (?), n. [F. pilute, L. pilula a pill, little ball, dim. of L. pila a ball. Cf. Piles.]
1.
A medicine in the form of a little ball, or small round mass, to be swallowed whole.
2.
Figuratively, something offensive or nauseous which must be accepted or endured.
<-- esp., as bitter pill -->
Udall.
Pill beetle Zool., any small beetle of the genus Byrrhus, having a rounded body, with the head concealed beneath the thorax. -- Pill bug Zool., any terrestrial isopod of the genus Armadillo, having the habit of rolling itself into a ball when disturbed. Called also pill wood louse.<-- poison pill Fig., anything accompanying a desirable object or action, which makes it deleterious to him who accepts it; esp. (Finance) a provision in the regulations or financial structure (as indebtedness) of a company which makes the company undesirable as a target for a hostile takeover -->
© Webster 1913.