drill

Drill a small hole to start the screw in the right direction.

(transitive) To create (a hole) by removing material with a drill (tool).

They drilled daily to learn the routine exactly.

On his return the team that faced Hull City had been reconfigured. Moses wasn’t overly drilled, just told he would be playing right wing-back, that Conte had seen enough to know.

2017 May 13, Barney Ronay, “Antonio Conte’s brilliance has turned Chelsea’s pop-up team into champions”, in the Guardian:

(intransitive) To practice, especially in (or as in) a military context.

The sergeant was up by 6:00 every morning, drilling his troops.

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

1859, Thomas Macaulay, Life of Frederick the Great:

(ergative) To cause to drill (practice); to train in military arts.

The instructor drilled into us the importance of reading the instructions.

(transitive) To repeat an idea frequently in order to encourage someone to remember it.

Drill deeper and you may find the underlying assumptions faulty.

(intransitive, figurative) To investigate or examine something in more detail or at a different level

He drilled down the court and made a three-pointer.

He drilled the ball to his teammate.

He did get their attention when he drilled the ball dead center into the hole for an opening birdie.

Without compromising he drilled the ball home, leaving Dynamos' ill-fated keeper diving for fresh air.

Bolton were then just inches from taking the lead, but the dangerous-looking Taylor drilled just wide after picking up a loose ball following Jose Bosingwa's poor attempted clearance.

2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC:

(transitive) To throw, run, hit or kick with a lot of power.

(baseball) To hit someone with a pitch, especially in an intentional context.

Everytime^([sic]) when I rape your daughter. Your beautiful faces expressing how it hurts. Always while I drill her c*nt. I want to see you dead.

2010, MasseMord (lyrics and music), “Masshealing Masskilling”:

Guess I'll be drilling her butt

2012, SwizZz (lyrics and music), “Flu Shot”:

(slang, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse with; to penetrate.

en-verb

drill (third-person singular simple present drills, present participle drilling, simple past and past participle drilled)

drills (present singular third-person)
drilling (participle present)
drilled (participle past)
drilled (past)

From Middle Dutch drillen (“bore, move in a circle”).


drill

Wear safety glasses when operating an electric drill.

A tool or machine used to remove material so as to create a hole, typically by plunging a rotating cutting bit into a stationary workpiece.

Use a drill with a wire brush to remove any rust or buildup.

The portion of a drilling tool that drives the bit.

Regular fire drills can ensure that everyone knows how to exit safely in an emergency.

“[…] if you call my duds a ‘livery’ again there'll be trouble. It's bad enough to go around togged out like a life saver on a drill day, but I can stand that 'cause I'm paid for it. What I won't stand is to have them togs called a livery. […]”

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

An activity done as an exercise or practice (especially a military exercise), particularly in preparation for some possible future event or occurrence.

At today's practice, the football team performed a variety of goalkeeping drills.

A short and highly repeatable sports training exercise designed to hone a particular skill that may be useful in competition.

Any of several molluscs, of the genus Urosalpinx and others, especially the oyster drill (Urosalpinx cinerea), that make holes in the shells of their prey.

Though the young women of Chicago’s drill scene can be as rowdy as their male counterparts, they’re also more diverse in subject matter and point to a possible way forward.

2012 October 4, Jon Caramanica, “Chicago Hip-Hop’s Raw Burst of Change”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

New York City mayor Eric Adams held a summit with a group of drill rappers on Tuesday night and clarified he doesn’t actually want to ban their music, days after he appeared to blame the music scene for the recent shooting deaths of two young New York rappers and suggested drill videos be pulled from the internet.

2022 February 18, Wilfred Chan, “Eric Adams meets with the drill rappers whose music he said he wanted to ban”, in The Guardian:

Between ticky off-kilter rhythms and otherworldly digital voice processing, the experimental hip-hop genres trap and drill have delivered radical hymns from alien planets.

2022, W. David Marx, chapter 10, in Status and Culture, Viking, →ISBN:

(uncountable, music) A style of trap music with gritty, violent lyrics, originating on the South Side of Chicago.


drill

I found down at the side of the house the remains of what must have once been a kitchen garden. Everything was choked with weeds and scutch grass, but the outlines of bed and drill were still there.

An agricultural implement for making holes for sowing seed, and sometimes so formed as to contain seeds and drop them into the hole made.

A light furrow or channel made to put seed into, when sowing.

vako

light furrow or channel to put seed into

Perhaps the same as Etymology 3; compare German Rille which can also mean "small furrow".


drill

(transitive) To sow (seeds) by dribbling them along a furrow or in a row.


drill

Springs through the pleasant meadows pour their drills.

(obsolete) A small trickling stream; a rill.

Uncertain. Compare the same sense of trill, and German trillen, drillen. Attestation predates Etymology 1.


drill

waters drilled through a sandy stratum

Now it is a great square profunditie ; greene , and uneven at the bottome : into which a barren spring doch drill from betweene the stones of the North - ward wall

1615, George Sandys, “(please specify the page)”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett, →OCLC:

(transitive) To cause to flow in drills or rills or by trickling; to drain by trickling.


drill

Quit purposely drilling out the time hoping that someone else will do your chores.

(transitive, obsolete or dialectal) To protract, lengthen out; fritter away, spend (time) aimlessly.

He tells me with great passion that she has bubbled him out of his youth; that she drilled him on to five and fifty [years old], and that he verily believes she will drop him in his old age, if she can find her account in another.

1711 June 12, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, number 89; republished in The Works of Joseph Addison, volume 1, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1842, page 142:

(transitive, obsolete or dialectal) To entice or allure; to decoy; with on.

August 28, 1731, letter by Jonathan Swift to John Gay and Catherine Douglas, Duchess of Queensberry
This cursed accident hath drilled away the whole summer.

(transitive, obsolete or dialectal) To cause to slip or waste away by degrees.

kuluttaa

to cause to slip or waste away by degrees

From Middle English drillen (“to delay, defer, put off”), of origin unknown.

unk

origin


drill

An Old World monkey of West Africa, Mandrillus leucophaeus, similar in appearance to the mandrill, but lacking the colorful face.

]
Probably of African origin; compare mandrill.


drill

A strong, durable cotton fabric with a strong bias (diagonal) in the weave.

en-noun

drill (countable and uncountable, plural drills)

From German Drillich (“denim, canvas, drill”).