drill1
n.
- a tool or machine with a rotating or reciprocating cutting tip, used for boring holes.
- training in military exercises.
▸instruction by means of repeated exercises.
▸
(the drill)
informal the correct or recognized procedure.
- a predatory mollusc that bores into the shells of other molluscs.
[Urosalpinx cinerea (oyster drill, America) and other species.]
v.
- bore (a hole) in something with a drill.
▸sink a borehole.
- subject to military training or other intensive instruction.
- informal (in sport) hit (a shot) hard and in a straight line.
-
(drill down)
Computing access data in a lower level of a hierarchically structured database.
Derivative
Etymology
C17: from MDu. drillen ‘bore, turn in a circle’.
drill2
n.
a machine which makes small furrows, sows seed in them, and then covers the sown seed.
▸a small furrow made by a drill.
v.
sow with a drill.
Etymology
C18: perh. from drill1.
drill3
n.
a West African baboon with a naked blue or purple rump.
[
Mandrillus leucophaeus.]
Etymology
C17: prob. a local word; cf. mandrill.
drill4
n.
a coarse twilled cotton or linen fabric.
Etymology
C18: abbrev. of earlier drilling, from Ger. Drillich, from L. trilix ‘triple-twilled’, from tri- ‘three’ + licium ‘thread’.