name
Meaning 1
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
nill
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/nɪl/
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rhymes with -ɪl
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homophone: nil
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homophone: Nill
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CMU ARPABET: N IH1 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
Shining sparks thrown off from melted brass.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
Scales of hot iron from the forge.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
Synonym of zinc oxide, particularly white forms used in medicine and cosmetics.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: zinc oxide, particularly white forms used in medicine and cosmetics
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
To be unwilling; will not (+ infinitive).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: auxiliary, modal, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 6
To be unwilling.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 7
To reject, refuse, negate.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: archaic, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
Compare Irish néal and Scottish Gaelic neul (“star, light”). Compare nebula.
From Medieval Latin nil and nihil (“nothing”) to represent German nichts and nix (“nothing”), confused with Latin nix (“snow, snow-white thing”), used for white forms of zinc oxide. Doublet of nihil album.
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.