Till , v. i. To cultivate land.
Piers Plowman.
Till , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tilled (?);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Tilling.]
[OE. tilen, tilien, AS. tilian, teolian, to
aim, strive for, till; akin to OS.
tilian to get, D. telen to propagate, G. zielen to aim, ziel an end, object, and perhaps also to E. tide, time, from the idea
of something fixed or definite. Cf. Teal,
Till, prep..]
1. To plow
and prepare for seed, and
to sow, dress, raise crops from, etc., to cultivate; as, to till the earth, a field, a farm.
No field nolde [would not]
tilye.
P. Plowman. the Lord God
sent him forth from the garden of
Eden, to till the ground from whence he was
taken.
Gen.
iii. 23. 2. To prepare; to get. [Obs.] W.
Browne.
Till (?), conj. As
far as; up to the place
or degree that; especially, up to the time that; that is, to the time specified in the sentence or clause following; until.
And said unto
them, Occupy till I come.
Luke xix.
13. Mediate so long till you make some act
of prayer to God.
Jer.
Taylor. There was no outbreak till the regiment
arrived.
Macaulay. &fist;
This use may be explained by supposing an ellipsis of when, or the time when, the proper conjunction or conjunctive adverb begin when.
Till , prep. [OE. til, Icel. til; akin to Dan.
til, Sw. till,
OFries. til, also to AS. til
good, excellent, G. ziel end, limit, object, OHG. zil,
Goth. tils, gatils, fit, convenient, and E. till to cultivate. See Till, v. t.]
To; unto; up to; as far as; until; -- now used only in respect to time, but formerly, also, of place, degree, etc., and still so used in Scotland and in parts of England and Ireland; as, I
worked till four o'clock; I will wait till next week.
He .
. . came till an house.
Chaucer. Women, up till this
Cramped under worse than South-sea-isle taboo.
Tennyson. Similar
sentiments will recur to every one
familiar with his writings -- all through them till the very end.
Prof.
Wilson. Till now, to the present time. -- Till then, to that time.
Till , n.
1. (Geol.) A deposit of clay, sand, and gravel, without lamination, formed in a glacier valley by means of the
waters derived from the melting glaciers; -- sometimes applied to alluvium of an upper river terrace, when not laminated, and appearing as if formed
in the same
manner.
2. A kind of coarse, obdurate land. Loudon.
Till , n. [Properly, a drawer, from OE. tillen
to draw. See
Tiller the lever of a rudder.]
A drawer. Specifically: (a) A tray or drawer in a chest. (b)
A money drawer in a shop or store.
Till alarm, a device for sounding an alarm when a
money drawer is opened or tampered with.
Till (?), n. [Abbrev. from lentil.]
A vetch; a tare. [Prov. Eng.]
Hear it pronounced