Dictionaries › English

nill

Pronunciation: /nɪl/

The English word “nill” has 6 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To be unwilling; will not (+ infinitive).
  2. To be unwilling.
  3. To reject, refuse, negate.

noun

  1. Shining sparks thrown off from melted brass.
  2. Scales of hot iron from the forge.
  3. Synonym of zinc oxide, particularly white forms used in medicine and cosmetics.

Etymology

From Middle English nillen, from Old English nyllan (“to not want”), corresponding to ne + will. Cognate with Old Frisian nelle. Not directly related to Latin nolo, which is an independent construction of the same manner, but the morphemes that compound both verbs are cognates.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “nill” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.