Definition of "quill"

quill

/kwɪl/

noun
plural quills
1. The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.
2. A pen made from a feather.
  Quotations
  The note was written in a delicate hand with a crow-quill, on primrose-coloured paper, with a lilac seal—the motto "tout à vous;" and the whole with just a faint perfume of jasmine.
  1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, page 77
3. (by extension) Any pen.
4. A sharply pointed, barbed, and easily detached needle-like structure that grows on the skin of a porcupine or hedgehog as a defense against predators.
  Quotations
  I could a Tale vnfold, vvhoſe lighteſt vvord / VVould harrovv vp thy ſoule, freeze thy young blood, / Make thy tvvo eyes like Starres, ſtart from their Spheres, / Thy knotty and combined locks to part, / And each particular haire to ſtand an end, / Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine: […]
  c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene v], page 257, column 2
5. A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.
6. The pen of a squid.
7. (music) The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.
8. (music) The tube of a musical instrument.
  Quotations
  He touched the tender stops of various quills.
  1637, John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646
9. (weaving) a spindle, or spool, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.
  Quotations
  His hair still stood up in punk-rock quills and spikes.
  1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger
verb
third-person singular simple present quills, present participle quilling, simple past and past participle quilled
1. To pierce with quills. (Usually in the passive voice, as be quilled or get quilled.)
  Quotations
  Coyotes, bears, and mountain lions which occasionally kill porcupines are sometimes quilled.
  1966, David Francis Costello, The World of the Porcupine, J. B. Lippincott & Company, page 66
  Then one of my dogs got quilled, and it happened again a month later. After putting the dog in a headlock, yanking out several dozen quills, and spurting blood all over myself and the decking of the back porch, I at least understood his antiporcupine venom.
  2010, Mark Parman, A Grouse Hunter's Almanac: The Other Kind of Hunting, University of Wisconsin Press, page 49
2. (figuratively) To write.
  Quotations
  Nibs never would have quilled a seriph to sheepskin.
  1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, part I, page 182
  One has only to recall that Coleridge and Wordsworth one day were lounging by the sea shore, while nearby sat an English police agent on snitch patrol prepared to rush to headquarters to quill a report about the conversation.
  1976, Ed Sanders, Investigative Poetry, City Lights, published 1976, page 11
3. To form fabric into small, rounded folds.
4. To decorate with quillwork.
  Quotations
  Another characteristic of Plains Indians was the fairly strict division between art made and used by men and art made and used by women. Although men and women sometimes cooperated, women usually painted or quilled very balanced, controlled geometric designs on dresses, moccasins, robes, bags, and containers.
  2007, David J. Wishart, Encyclopedia of the Great Plains Indians, University of Nebraska Press, published 2007, page 32
5. (US and Canada, especially Appalachia and the Prairies, transitive) To subject (a woman who is giving birth) to the practice of quilling (blowing pepper into her nose to induce or hasten labor).

Definition of "quill"

quill

noun

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