bill

English Online Dictionary. What means bill‎? What does bill mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪl/, enPR: bîl
  • (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): [bɪɫ]
  • (l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): [bɪo̯], [bɪʊ̯]

• Rhymes: -ɪl

Etymology 1

From Middle English bille, from Anglo-Norman bille, from Old French bulle, from Medieval Latin bulla (“seal, sealed document”). Doublet of bull (“papal bull; bubble”) and bulla.

Noun

bill (plural bills)

1. A written list or inventory. (Now obsolete except in specific senses or set phrases; bill of lading, bill of goods, etc.)
2. A document, originally sealed; a formal statement or official memorandum. (Now obsolete except with certain qualifying words; bill of health, bill of sale etc.)
4. A draft of a law, presented to a legislature for enactment; a proposed or projected law.

   Synonym: measure
5. (obsolete, law) A declaration made in writing, stating some wrong the complainant has suffered from the defendant, or a fault committed by some person against a law.
7. (US, Canada) A piece of paper money; a banknote.
   1. (slang, Canada, US) One hundred dollars.
8. (slang, UK) One hundred pounds sterling.
   • 2023, BBC News: "Newport: Drugs gang jailed for exploiting vulnerable child" [3]

     In the conversation Henshall says he ^[sic] "struggling to find people to go up the roads" explaining how it would be "no good for black people" and how they need a "young white boy to go up there".
     Stock agrees, saying how he knows "this kid" who "owes me 12 bills".

9. A written note of goods sold, services rendered, or work done, with the price or charge; an invoice.

   Synonyms: account, invoice
11. A paper, written or printed, and posted up or given away, to advertise something, as a lecture, a play, or the sale of goods

    Synonyms: broadsheet, broadside, card, circular, flier, flyer, handbill, poster, posting, placard, notice, throwaway
12. A writing that binds the signer or signers to pay a certain sum at a future day or on demand, with or without interest, as may be stated in the document; a bill of exchange. In the United States, it is usually called a note, a note of hand, or a promissory note.

    Synonyms: bank bill, banker's bill, bank note, banknote, Federal Reserve note, government note, greenback, note
13. A set of items presented together.
14. (UK, Eton College) A list of pupils to be disciplined for breaking school rules.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Swahili: bili
• → Thai: บิล (bin)
• → Tokelauan: pili
• → Jamaican Creole: bills

Translations

See also

• check

Verb

bill (third-person singular simple present bills, present participle billing, simple past and past participle billed)

1. (transitive) To advertise by a bill or public notice.

   Synonym: placard
2. (transitive) To charge; to send a bill to.

   Synonym: charge

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English bill, bil, bille, bile, from Old English bile (“beak (of a bird); trunk (of an elephant)”), of unknown origin. Perhaps from a special use of Old English bil, bill (“hook; sword”) (see below).

Noun

bill (plural bills)

2. (zootomy) The beak of a bird, especially when small or flattish; sometimes also used with reference to a platypus, turtle, or other animal.

   Synonyms: beak, neb, nib, pecker
3. A beak-like projection, especially a promontory.

4. Of a cap or hat: the brim or peak, serving as a shade to keep sun off the face and out of the eyes.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

bill (third-person singular simple present bills, present participle billing, simple past and past participle billed)

1. (obsolete) to peck
2. to stroke bill against bill, with reference to doves; to caress in fondness

Derived terms

• bill and coo

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English bill, bille, bil, from Old English bil, bill (“a hooked point; curved weapon; two-edged sword”), from Proto-Germanic *bilją (“axe; sword; blade”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyH- (“to strike; beat”). Cognate with West Frisian bile (“axe”), Dutch bijl (“axe”), German Bille (“axe”).

Noun

bill (plural bills)

2. Any of various bladed or pointed hand weapons, originally designating an Anglo-Saxon sword, and later a weapon of infantry, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries, commonly consisting of a broad, heavy, double-edged, hook-shaped blade, with a short pike at the back and another at the top, attached to the end of a long staff.

   Synonym: polearm
4. A cutting instrument, with hook-shaped point, and fitted with a handle, used in pruning, etc.; a billhook.

   Synonyms: billhook, hand bill, hedgebill

6. Somebody armed with a bill; a billman.

   Synonym: billman

8. A pickaxe or mattock.
10. (nautical) The extremity of the arm of an anchor; the point of or beyond the fluke (also called the peak).

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

bill (third-person singular simple present bills, present participle billing, simple past and past participle billed)

1. (transitive) To dig, chop, etc., with a bill.

Translations

Etymology 4

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

bill (plural bills)

1. The bell, or boom, of the bittern.

Etymology 5

From a pronunciation spelling of build.

Verb

bill (third-person singular simple present bills, present participle billing, simple past and past participle billed)

1. (ambitransitive, UK, slang) To roll up a marijuana cigarette.

Derived terms

Cimbrian

Etymology 1

From Middle High German wille, from Old High German willo, from Proto-Germanic *wiljô (“will, wish, desire”). Cognate with German Wille, English will.

Noun

bill m

1. (Sette Comuni) will (legal document)

   Synonym: testamentén

Etymology 2

From Middle High German wilde, from Old High German wildi, from Proto-West Germanic *wilþī, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz (“wild”). Cognate with German wild, English wild.

Adjective

bill (comparative billor, superlative dar billorste) (Sette Comuni)

1. wild, crazy, mad
2. wild (not domesticated)
3. stupid

Declension

Derived terms

• billa gòas
• billa hénna
• billar haano
• billar balt
• billekhot
• dorbìllaran

References

• “bill” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo

East Central German

Etymology

Compare German bisschen.

Adverb

bill

1. (Erzgebirgisch) (often with e or a) (a) little

Further reading

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English bill; doublet of bulle (“bubble”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bil/

Noun

bill m (plural bills)

1. (law) bill (draft UK law)
2. (North America) bill (invoice in a restaurant etc)

Further reading

• “bill”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bill/, [biɫ]

Noun

bill n

1. Alternative form of bil

Swedish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɪl

Etymology 1

From Old Swedish bilder, from Old Norse bíldr, from Proto-Germanic *bīþlaz (“axe”). An instrumental derivation of *bītaną (“to bite”). Closely related to bila (“broadaxe”).

Noun

bill c

1. (agriculture) a share; the cutting blade of a plough

Declension

Derived terms

• plogbill

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English bill, from Middle English bille, from Anglo-Norman bille, from Old French bulle, from Medieval Latin bulla (“seal, sealed document”). Doublet of bulla.

Noun

bill c

1. (law) a draft of a law in English-speaking countries

Declension

References

• bill in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)