different between quill vs quilled

English

Etymology

From late Middle English quil, which is first attested in the early 15th century with the meanings "fragment of reed" and "shaft of a feather", probably from Low German and Middle Low German quiele, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *g?elH- (“to pierce, stick”).

Compare Middle High German kil (“large feather, quill”), which is derived from the Low German term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kw?l/, [k?w??l]
• Rhymes: -?l

Noun

quill (plural quills)

1. The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.

   Synonym: calamus

2. A pen made from a feather.

   Synonyms: feather pen, quill pen

3. (by extension) Any pen.

4. A sharply pointed, barbed, and easily detached needle-like structure that grows on the skin of a porcupine or hedgehog as a defense against predators. [from early 17th c.]
5. A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.
6. The pen of a squid.
7. (music) The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.
8. (music) The tube of a musical instrument.
9. Something having the form of a quill, such as the fold or plain of a ruff, or (weaving) a spindle, or spool, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.
   • 1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger

     His hair still stood up in punk-rock quills and spikes.

Translations

Verb

quill (third-person singular simple present quills, present participle quilling, simple past and past participle quilled)

1. To pierce or be pierced with quills.
   • 1966, David Francis Costello, The World of the Porcupine, J. B. Lippincott & Company, page 66:

     Coyotes, bears, and mountain lions which occasionally kill porcupines are sometimes quilled.

   • 2010, Mark Parman, A Grouse Hunter's Almanac: The Other Kind of Hunting, University of Wisconsin Press, ?ISBN, page 49:

     Then one of my dogs got quilled, and it happened again a month later. After putting the dog in a headlock, yanking out several dozen quills, and spurting blood all over myself and the decking of the back porch, I at least understood his antiporcupine venom.

2. (figuratively) To write.
   • 1939, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, page 182:

     Nibs never would have quilled a seriph to sheepskin.

   • 1976, Ed Sanders, Investigative Poetry, City Lights (1976), page 11:

     One has only to recall that Coleridge and Wordsworth one day were lounging by the sea shore, while nearby sat an English police agent on snitch patrol prepared to rush to headquarters to quill a report about the conversation.

3. To form fabric into small, rounded folds.
4. To decorate with quillwork.
   • 2007, David J. Wishart, Encyclopedia of the Great Plains Indians, University of Nebraska Press (2007), ?ISBN, page 32:

     Another characteristic of Plains Indians was the fairly strict division between art made and used by men and art made and used by women. Although men and women sometimes cooperated, women usually painted or quilled very balanced, controlled geometric designs on dresses, moccasins, robes, bags, and containers.

5. (US and Canada, especially Appalachia and the Prairies, transitive) To subject (a woman who is giving birth) to the practice of quilling (blowing pepper into her nose to induce or hasten labor).
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:quill.

Translations

References

German

Pronunciation

Verb

quill

1. singular imperative of quellen

Manx

Etymology

From Old Irish cuil (“fly; flea, gnat”).

Noun

quill f (genitive singular quill, plural quillyn)

1. gnat

Synonyms

• meeyl

Mutation

References

• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “1 cuil”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

English

Etymology

quill +? -ed

Adjective

quilled (comparative more quilled, superlative most quilled)

1. Having quills or similar structures.
   • 1594, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act III, Scene I:

     In Ireland have I seen this stubborn Cade

     Oppose himself against a troop of kerns,

     And fought so long till that his thighs with darts

     Were almost like a sharp-quill'd porpentine;

   • 2010, T. Lloyd Winetsky, Maria Juana's Gift: A Novel, Sunstone Press (2010), ?ISBN, page 148:

     He leaned down to inspect a white-quilled cactus, and then spotted a different kind with skinnier branches and only a few drab spines.

   • 2011, Alesa Corrin, Jonathan: The Griffin Prince, AuthorHouse (2011), ?ISBN, page 234:

     A quilled lionfish was face to face with a saurian moray eel, sizing it up before swimming on.

2. (of a flower) Having long, narrow petals or florets.
   • 1889, William Robinson, The English Flower Garden: Style, Position, And Arrangement, John Murray (1899), page 291:

     In the wild state the flowers are single—that is to say, only the outer florets are strap-shaped, and usually of a rosy-lilac tint, with yellowish disc florets; but under cultivation, all the florets have become ligulate or quilled […]

3. Created through the process of quilling.
4. (of fabric) Having small, rounded folds.
   • 1844, Louisa Stuart Costello, Memoirs of Eminent Englishwomen, Volume 1, R. Bentley (1844), page 169:

     Round the throat is a ruff of white muslin, quilled in large reverse plaids; […]

   • 1909, Henry C. Shelley, Inns and Taverns of Old London, L.C. Page and Company (1909):

     He insensibly began to alter his appearance; his cravat seemed quilled into a ruff, and his breeches swelled out into a farlingale. I now fancied him changing sexes; and as my eyes began to close in slumber, I imagined my fat landlord actually converted into as fat a landlady.

5. Decorated with quillwork.

Verb

quilled

1. simple past tense and past participle of quill