gill

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

gill, n. [Dan. giælle, gelle; akin to Sw. gäl, Icel. gjölnar gills; cf. AS. geagl, geahl, jaw.].

•  An organ for aquatic respiration; a branchia.  [1913 Webster]

  " Gills are usually lamellar or filamentous appendages, through which the blood circulates, and in which it is exposed to the action of the air contained in the water. In vertebrates they are appendages of the visceral arches on either side of the neck. In invertebrates they occupy various situations."  [1913 Webster]

  "Fishes perform respiration under water by the gills."  [1913 Webster]
•  The radiating, gill-shaped plates forming the under surface of a mushroom.  [1913 Webster]
•  The fleshy flap that hangs below the beak of a fowl; a wattle.  [1913 Webster]
•  The flesh under or about the chin.  Swift.  [1913 Webster]
•  One of the combs of closely ranged steel pins which divide the ribbons of flax fiber or wool into fewer parallel filaments.  [1913 Webster]

Gill arches, Gill bars. (Anat.) Same as Branchial arches. -- Gill clefts. (Anat.) Same as Branchial clefts. See under Branchial. -- Gill cover, Gill lid. See Operculum. -- Gill frame, or Gill head (Flax Manuf.), a spreader; a machine for subjecting flax to the action of gills. Knight. -- Gill net, a flat net so suspended in the water that its meshes allow the heads of fish to pass, but catch in the gills when they seek to extricate themselves. -- Gill opening, or Gill slit (Anat.), an opening behind and below the head of most fishes, and some amphibians, by which the water from the gills is discharged. In most fishes there is a single opening on each side, but in the sharks and rays there are five, or more, on each side. -- Gill rakes, or Gill rakers (Anat.), horny filaments, or progresses, on the inside of the branchial arches of fishes, which help to prevent solid substances from being carried into gill cavities.

gill, n. [Etymol. uncertain.].

 A two-wheeled frame for transporting timber.  [1913 Webster]

gill, n. 

 A leech.  Jameison.  [1913 Webster]

gill, n. [Icel. gil.].

 A woody glen; a narrow valley containing a stream.  [1913 Webster]

gill, n. [OF. gille, gelle, a sort of measure for wine, LL. gillo, gello., Cf. Gallon.].

 A measure of capacity, containing one fourth of a pint.  [1913 Webster]

gill, n. [Abbrev. from Gillian.].

•  A young woman; a sweetheart; a flirting or wanton girl.  B. Jonson.  [1913 Webster]
•  The ground ivy (Nepeta Glechoma); -- called also gill over the ground, and other like names.  [1913 Webster]
•  Malt liquor medicated with ground ivy.  [1913 Webster]

Gill ale. (a) Ale flavored with ground ivy. (b) (Bot.) Alehoof.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

gill, n. & v.
--n. (usu. in pl.)
1 the respiratory organ in fishes and other aquatic animals.
2 the vertical radial plates on the underside of mushrooms and other fungi.
3 the flesh below a person's jaws and ears (green about the gills).
4 the wattles or dewlap of fowls.
--v.tr.
1 gut (a fish).
2 cut off the gills of (a mushroom).
3 catch in a gill-net.

Idiom

gill-cover a bony case protecting a fish's gills; an operculum. gill-net a net for entangling fishes by the gills.

Derivative

gilled adj. (also in comb.).

gill, n.
1 a unit of liquid measure, equal to a quarter of a pint.
2 Brit. dial. half a pint.

gill, n. (also ghyll) Brit.
1 a deep usu. wooded ravine.
2 a narrow mountain torrent.

gill, n. (also Gill, jill, Jill)
1 derog. a young woman.
2 colloq. or dial. a female ferret.

Etymology

ME, abbr. of Gillian f. OF Juliane f. L Juliana (Julius)

THESAURUS

gill

Dulcinea, adolescent stream, arroyo, beck, bellows, best girl, bottom, bottom glade, bottoms, bourn, braided stream, branch, brook, brooklet, burn, channel, creek, crick, ctenidia, dale, dell, dingle, dream girl, flowing stream, fluviation, fresh, freshet, gap, gills, girl, girl friend, glen, grove, inamorata, intervale, jill, jo, kill, lady, lady love, lass, lassie, lazy stream, lights, lunar rill, lungs, meandering stream, midchannel, midstream, millstream, mistress, moving road, navigable river, old lady, pass, race, racing stream, ravine, river, rivulet, run, rundle, runlet, runnel, sike, spill stream, strath, stream, stream action, streamlet, subterranean river, trench, trough, vale, valley, wadi, watercourse, waterway

ROGET THESAURUS

gill

Sharpness

N sharpness, acuity, acumination, spinosity, point, spike, spine, spicule, spiculum, needle, hypodermic needle, tack, nail, pin, prick, prickle, spur, rowel, barb, spit, cusp, horn, antler, snag, tag thorn, bristle, Adam's needle, bear grass, tine, yucca, nib, tooth, tusk, spoke, cog, ratchet, crag, crest, arete, cone peak, sugar loaf, pike, aiguille, spire, pyramid, steeple, beard, chevaux de frise, porcupine, hedgehog, brier, bramble, thistle, comb, awn, beggar's lice, bur, burr, catchweed, cleavers, clivers, goose, grass, hairif, hariff, flax comb, hackle, hatchel, heckle, wedge, knife edge, cutting edge, blade, edge tool, cutlery, knife, penknife, whittle, razor, razor blade, safety razor, straight razor, electric razor, scalpel, bistoury, lancet, plowshare, coulter, colter, hatchet, ax, pickax, mattock, pick, adze, gill, billhook, cleaver, cutter, scythe, sickle, scissors, shears, pruning shears, cutters, wire cutters, nail clipper, paper cutter, sword, bodkin, belduque, bowie knife, paring knife, bushwhacker, drawing knife, drawing shave, microtome, chisel, screwdriver blade, flint blade, guillotine, sharpener, hone, strop, grindstone, whetstone, novaculite, steel, emery, sharp, keen, acute, acicular, aciform, aculeated, acuminated, pointed, tapering, conical, pyramidal, mucronate, mucronated, spindle shaped, needle shaped, spiked, spiky, ensiform, peaked, salient, cusped, cuspidate, cuspidated, cornute, cornuted, cornicultate, prickly, spiny, spinous, spicular, thorny, bristling, muricated, pectinated, studded, thistly, briary, craggy, snaggy, digitated, two-edged, fusiform, dentiform, denticulated, toothed, odontoid, starlike, stellated, stelliform, sagittate, sagittiform, arrowheaded, arrowy, barbed, spurred, acinaciform, apiculate, apiculated, aristate, awned, awny, bearded, calamiform, cone-shaped, coniform, crestate, echinate, gladiate, lanceolate, lanciform, awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl- shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped, setarious, spinuliferous, subulate, tetrahedral, xiphoid, cutting, sharp edged, knife edged, sharp as a razor, keen as a razor, sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack, sharpened, set.

River

N river, running water, jet, spirt, spurt, squirt, spout, spray, splash, rush, gush, jet d'eau, sluice, water spout, water fall, cascade, force, foss, lin, linn, ghyll, Niagara, cataract, rapids, white water, catadupe, cataclysm, debacle, inundation, deluge, chute, washout, rain, rainfall, serein, shower, scud, downpour, driving rain, drenching rain, cloudburst, hyetology, hyetography, predominance of Aquarius, reign of St. Swithin, mizzle, drizzle, stillicidum, plash, dropping, falling weather, northeaster, hurricane, typhoon, stream, course, flux, flow, profluence, effluence, defluxion, flowing, current, tide, race, coulee, spring, artesian well, fount, fountain, rill, rivulet, gill, gullet, rillet, streamlet, brooklet, branch, runnel, sike, burn, beck, creek, brook, bayou, stream, river, reach, tributary, geyser, spout, waterspout, body of water, torrent, rapids, flush, flood, swash, spring tide, high tide, full tide, bore, tidal bore, eagre, hygre, fresh, freshet, indraught, reflux, undercurrent, eddy, vortex, gurge, whirlpool, Maelstrom, regurgitation, overflow, confluence, corrivation, wave, billow, surge, swell, ripple, anerythmon gelasma, beach comber, riffle, rollers, ground swell, surf, breakers, white horses, whitecaps, rough sea, heavy sea, high seas, cross sea, long sea, short sea, chopping sea, hydrodynamics, hydraulics, hydraulicostatics, rain gauge, flowmeter, pegology, irrigation, pump, watering pot, watering cart, hydrant, syringe, garden hose, lawn spray, bhisti, mussuk, fluent, diffluent, profluent, affluent, tidal, flowing, meandering, meandry, meandrous, fluvial, fluviatile, streamy, showery, rainy, pluvial, stillicidous, stillatitious, for men may come and men may go but I go on foreve, that old man river, he just keeps rolling along.