drill
pronunciation
How to pronounce drill in British English:
UK [drɪl]
How to pronounce drill in American English:
US [drɪl]
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- Noun:
- a tool with a sharp point and cutting edges for making holes in hard materials (usually rotating rapidly or by repeated blows)
- similar to the mandrill but smaller and less brightly colored
- systematic training by multiple repetitions
- (military) the training of soldiers to march (as in ceremonial parades) or to perform the manual of arms
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- Verb:
- make a hole with a pointed power or hand tool
- train in the military, e.g., in the use of weapons
- learn by repetition
- teach by repetition
- undergo military training or do military exercises
Word Origin
- drill
- drill: English has no fewer than four separate words drill, all of them comparatively recent acquisitions. Drill ‘make a hole’ [16] was borrowed from Middle Dutch drillen, but beyond that is history is obscure. The word’s military application, to ‘repetitive training’, dates from earliest times, and also existed in the Dutch verb in the 16th century; it seems to have originated as a metaphorical extension of the notion of ‘turning round’ – that is, of troops marching around in circles. Drill ‘small furrow for sowing seeds’ [18] may come from the now obsolete noun drill ‘rivulet’, but the origins of this are purely conjectural: some have linked it with the obsolete verb drill ‘trickle’. Drill ‘strong fabric’ [18] gets its name from originally being woven from three threads.An earlier form of the word was drilling, an adaptation of German drillich; this in turn was descended from Latin trilix, a compound formed from tri- ‘three’ and līcium ‘thread’ (trellis is a doublet, coming ultimately from the same Latin source). (Cloth woven from two threads, incidentally, is twill [14], or alternatively – from Greek dímitos – dimity [15].) Drill ‘African baboon’ [17] comes from a West African word.It occurs also in the compound mondrill [18], the name of a related baboon, which appears to have been formed with English man.=> trellis; mandrill
- drill (n.1)
- "tool for making holes," 1610s, from Dutch dril, drille "a hole, instrument for boring holes," from drillen "to bore (a hole), turn around, whirl" (see drill (v.)).
- drill (n.2)
- "small furrow," 1727; also "machine for sowing seeds" (1731), from obsolete drill "rill, trickling stream" (1640s), which is of unknown origin; perhaps connected to drill (n.1).
- drill (n.4)
- "West African baboon species," 1640s, perhaps from a native word (compare mandrill).
- drill (n.3)
- kind of coarse, twilled cloth, 1743, from French drill, from German drillich "heavy, coarse cotton or linen fabric," from Old High German adjective drilich "threefold," from Latin trilix (genitive trilicis) "triply twilled" (see trellis). So called in reference to the method of weaving it.
- drill (v.)
- c. 1600 (implied in drilling), from Dutch drillen "to bore (a hole), turn around, whirl," from Proto-Germanic *thr- (cognates: Middle High German drillen "to turn, round off, bore," Old Engish þyrel "hole"), from PIE *tere- (1) "to turn, rub" (see throw (v.)). Sense of "to instruct in military exercise" is 1620s (also in Dutch drillen and in the Danish and German cognates), probably from the notion of troops "turning" in maneuvers. Extended noun sense of "the agreed-upon procedure" is from 1940. Related: Drilled.
Example
- 1. Beijing reacted angrily to the latest us-led drill .
- 2. A missile-firing drill in an undisclosed location in north korea .
- 3. But military officials said late monday the drill has been canceled .
- 4. They could be extras from blade runner forced into a fire drill .
- 5. The board recommends a twice-yearly drill to review where emergency exits are and how to open them .