*drill*

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Drilled p. pr. & vb. n. Drilling. ] [ D. drillen to bore, drill (soldiers); probably akin to AS. pyrlian, pyrelian, to pierce. See Thrill. ] 1. To pierce or bore with a drill, or a with a drill; to perforate; as, to drill a hole into a rock; to drill a piece of metal. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To train in the military art; to exercise diligently, as soldiers, in military evolutions and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline. [ 1913 Webster ]

He [ Frederic the Great ] drilled his people, as he drilled his grenadiers. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To practice an exercise or exercises; to train one's self. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. An instrument with an edged or pointed end used for making holes in hard substances; strictly, a tool that cuts with its end, by revolving, as in drilling metals, or by a succession of blows, as in drilling stone; also, a drill press. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Mil.) The act or exercise of training soldiers in the military art, as in the manual of arms, in the execution of evolutions, and the like; hence, diligent and strict instruction and exercise in the rudiments and methods of any business; a kind or method of military exercises; as, infantry drill; battalion drill; artillery drill. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Any exercise, physical or mental, enforced with regularity and by constant repetition; as, a severe drill in Latin grammar. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Zool.) A marine gastropod, of several species, which kills oysters and other bivalves by drilling holes through the shell. The most destructive kind is Urosalpinx cinerea. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bow drill,
Breast drill. See under Bow, Breast. --
Cotter drill, or
Traverse drill, a machine tool for drilling slots. --
Diamond drill. See under Diamond. --
Drill jig. See under Jig. --
Drill pin, the pin in a lock which enters the hollow stem of the key. --
Drill sergeant (Mil.), a noncommissioned officer whose office it is to instruct soldiers as to their duties, and to train them to military exercises and evolutions. --
Vertical drill, a drill press. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ Cf. Trill to trickle, Trickle, Dribble, and W. rhillio to put in a row, drill. ] 1. To cause to flow in drills or rills or by trickling; to drain by trickling; as, waters drilled through a sandy stratum. [ R. ] Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To sow, as seeds, by dribbling them along a furrow or in a row, like a trickling rill of water. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To entice; to allure from step; to decoy; -- with on. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

See drilled him on to five-fifty. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To cause to slip or waste away by degrees. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

This accident hath drilled away the whole summer. Swift. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To trickle. [ Obs. or R. ] Sandys. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To sow in drills. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A small trickling stream; a rill. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Springs through the pleasant meadows pour their drills. Sandys. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Agr.) (a) An implement for making holes for sowing seed, and sometimes so formed as to contain seeds and drop them into the hole made. (b) A light furrow or channel made to put seed into sowing. (c) A row of seed sown in a furrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Drill is used adjectively, or as the first part of a compound; as, drill barrow or drill-barrow; drill husbandry; drill plow or drill-plow. [ 1913 Webster ]

Drill barrow, a wheeled implement for planting seed in drills. --
Drill bow, a small bow used for the purpose of rapidly turning a drill around which the bowstring takes a turn. --
Drill harrow, a harrow used for stirring the ground between rows, or drills. --
Drill plow, or
Drill plough, a sort plow for sowing grain in drills. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. Mandrill. ] (Zool.) A large African baboon (Cynocephalus leucophæus). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Usually in pl. ] (Manuf.) Same as Drilling. [ 1913 Webster ]

Imperial drill, a linen fabric having two threads in the warp and three in the filling. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who, or that which, drills. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ G. drillich, fr. L. trilix having three threads, fr. the of tres three + licium a thread of the warm. See Three, and cf. Twill. ] (Manuf.) A heavy, twilled fabric of linen or cotton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of piercing with a drill. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A training by repeated exercises. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of using a drill in sowing seeds. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who teaches drill, especially in the way of gymnastics. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

. A machine for drilling holes in metal, the drill being pressed to the metal by the action of a screw. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Mech.) A contrivance for holding and turning a drill. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a sandal with a sole made of rope or rubber and a cloth upper part. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Cf. F. mandrille, Sp. mandril, It. mandrillo; prob. the native name in Africa. Cf. Drill an ape. ] (Zool.) A large West African baboon (Papio sphinx syn. Mandrillus sphinx, formerly Cynocephalus mormon syn. Papio mormon). The adult male has, on the sides of the nose, large, naked, grooved swellings, conspicuously striped with blue and red. It is an endangered species. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

a. [ F. ] (Art) Marked with squares, generally by thin lines crossing at right angles and at equal intervals; as, quadrillé paper, or plotting paper. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. [ F. quadrille, n. fem., fr. Sp. cuadrilla meeting of four or more persons or It. quadriglia a band of soldiers, a sort of dance; dim. fr. L. quadra a square, fr. quattuor four. See Quadrate. ] 1. A dance having five figures, in common time, four couples of dancers being in each set. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The appropriate music for a quadrille. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. quadrille, n. masc., cf. It. quadriglio; or perhaps from the Spanish. See Quadrille a dance. ] A game played by four persons with forty cards, being the remainder of an ordinary pack after the tens, nines, and eights are discarded. Hoyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F., fr. L. quater four times, akin to quattuor four, E. four; -- formed like million. See Four, Million. ] According to the French notation, which is followed also upon the Continent and in the United States, a unit with fifteen ciphers annexed; according to the English notation, the number produced by involving a million to the fourth power, or the number represented by a unit with twenty-four ciphers annexed. See the Note under Numeration. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. (Bot.) Furnished with tendrils, or with such or so many, tendrils. “The thousand tendriled vine.” Southey. [ 1913 Webster ]