(strictly) Such an object that is of solid constitution (usually of compressed, bonded powder) rather than acapsule (with a shell containing loose powder or liquid).
I'm tearing down your brooder house / 'Cause now I've gotthe pill
1986, Jurriaan Plesman,Getting Off the Hook: Treatment of Drug Addiction and Social Disorders Through Body and Mind[2]:
Many specialists are requesting that this vitamin be included in all contraceptive pills, as women onthe pill have a tendency to be depressed.
Something offensive, unpleasant or nauseous which must be accepted or endured.
1907,E.M. Forster,The Longest Journey, Part I, III [Uniform ed., p. 45]:
"It's a sad unpalatable truth," said Mr. Pembroke, thinking that the despondency might be personal, "but one must accept it. My sister and Gerald, I am thankful to say, have accepted it, so naturally it has been a littlepill."
You see, he's egging Phyllis on to marry Wilbert Cream. [...] And when a man like that eggs, something has to give, especially when the girl's apill like Phyllis, who always does what Daddy tells her.
Instead, I saw a woman in her mid-fifties, who was a realpill; while all the others had managed a decent “So pleased,” or even a plain “Hello,” Ginger just inclined her head, as if she was doing a Queen Mary imitation.
The wordpill referring to a swallowable unit conveying a dose of medication ispolysemic in that it has abroad sense and anarrower sense: broadly, it means any such object, including anytablet orcapsule, whereas narrowly, it means atablet (including thecaplet type of tablet) but not acapsule. But the broad sense of the word is widely used in general vocabulary, and also in the medical and nursing literature; linguistically this is predictably inevitable, because natural language has a practical need for a simplehypernym that intuitively covers all such oral dosage forms, and the wordpill provides one by long-establishedidiomatic convention, with no alternative synonym that is thus established. Thus, trying to enforce ausage prescription that insists that the word must never be used in its broad sense iscounterproductive to clear and concise communication. This is why some publications' style sheets specify that the wordstablet,caplet, andcapsule will be used wherever technical precision is needed and that the wordpill will be reserved for contexts where the technical precision is irrelevant because the hypernymic concept is clearly meant, as for example in an instruction toask the patient whether they remember taking all their pills this morning.
pill (third-person singular simple presentpills,present participlepilling,simple past and past participlepilled)
(intransitive,textiles) Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber.
1997, Jo Sharp,Knitted Sweater Style: Inspirations in Color[6]:
During processing, inferior short fibers (which can causepilling and itching) are removed to enhance the natural softness of theyarn and to improve itswash-and-wear performance.
To form into the shape of a pill.
Pilling is a skill rarely used by modern pharmacists.
So syr Lucan departed for he was greuously wounded in many places And so as he yede he sawe and herkened by the mone lyght how that pyllars and robbers were comen in to the felde Topylle and robbe many a ful noble knyghte of brochys and bedys of many a good rynge & of many a ryche Iewel / and who that were not deed al oute
The Galles and thoſepilling Briggandines, That yeerely ſaile to the Uenetian goulfe, And houer in the ſtraightes for Chriſtians wracke, Shall lie at anchor in the IſleAſant.
1575, Jacques du Fouilloux, “Of the Termes of Venery”, inGeorge Gascoigne, transl.,The Noble Art of Venerie or Hunting.[…], London:[…]Thomas Purfoot, published1611,→OCLC,page244:
His [a hart's] head when it commeth firſt out, hath a ruſſetpyll vpon it, the which is calledVeluet,[…]. When his head is growne out to the full bigneſſe, then he rubbeth of thatpyll, and that is calledfraying of his head. And afterwards heBurniſheth the ſame, and then his head is ſaid to be full ſommed.
Some be covered with crusts or hardpills, as the locust
1682,A perfect school of Instructions for the Officers of the Mouth:
To make Sallet of Lemonpill, or green Citron. You must have your LemonPill preserved very green, Rasp it into a Dish, and raise it up lightly with a Fork[…]
