Word.ws English Dictionary

fill

/fɪl/

fill verb: to add contents to (a container, cavity, or the like) so that it is full. Also the ellipsis of fill light.

Verb

fill (third-person singular simple present fills, present participle filling, simple past and past participle filled)

  1. (ergative, transitive) To add contents to (a container, cavity, or the like) so that it is full.
    • She filled a glass with milk.
    • dreams filled with surreal imagery
    Synonyms:
    stop
  2. (ergative, transitive) To enter (something), making it full.
    • The doors opened and guests filled the auditorium.
    • In the evening of the 14th of July, there was a rainfall of 3 or 3½ inches in that locality. The water filled the ditch so full that it overflowed the levees on both sides in many places […] .1910 May 13, John C. Sherwin, opinion, Delashmutt et al. v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. et al., reprinted in volume 126, North Western Reporter, page 359, at 360
  3. (ergative, transitive) To occupy fully, to take up all of.
    • The smell of spring filled the air.
    • […]the drums began to thunder, the sound of trumpets filled the air, the earth trembled beneath their feet, and the hearts of the gazing multitude throbbed with suspense and expectation[…]c. 1761, Tobias Smollett, transl., Don Quixote, part 2, book 5, chapter 4
    Synonyms:
    pervade
  4. (intransitive, cavities, or the like) To become full.
    • The bucket filled with rain
    • The room filled with thick smoke.
    1. (intransitive) To become pervaded with something.
      • My heart filled with joy.
  5. (transitive) To satisfy or meet (as, an order, request, or requirement).
    • The pharmacist filled my prescription for penicillin.
    • We can't let the library close! It fills a great need in the community.
  6. (transitive) To install someone, or be installed, in (a position or office), eliminating a vacancy.
    • The board of supervisors called a specal election to fill the office, and at such special election Henry C. Andrews was elected judge of probate to fill out the said term.1891 January 23, Allen Morse, opinion, Lawrence v. Hanley, reprinted in volume 47, Northwestern Reporter, page 753, at 755
    • Sorry, no more applicants. The position has been filled.
  7. (transitive) To treat (a tooth) by adding a dental filling to it.
    • Dr. Smith filled Jim's cavity with silver amalgam.
    • Be that as it may, had the disturbance continued after our having filled the molar, and presuming that nothing had been done to the bicuspid, we might have been still as far as ever from knowing where the trouble lay.a. 1891, "Intimate Diagnosis of Diseased Teeth", in Items of Interest: A Monthly Magazine of Dental Art, Science and Literature, volume 13, number 11, November 1891, page 657...
  8. (transitive) To block, obstruct
    • The drains were filled with gunk and no water could flow off.
  9. (transitive) To supply fully with food; to feed; to satisfy.
    • Are all the children filled and ready for bed?
    • Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 15:33
  10. (transitive) To trim (a yard) so that the wind blows on the after side of the sails.
  11. (slang, transitive, vulgar) To have sexual intercourse with (a female).
    • Did you fill that girl last night?
    Synonyms:
    dick
  12. (slang, transitive, vulgar) To ejaculate inside someone or something.

Noun (1)

fill (countable and uncountable, plural fills)

  1. A sufficient or more than sufficient amount.
    • Don't feed him any more: he's had his fill.
    • Then they set somewhat of food before me, whereof I ate my fill, and gave me somewhat of clothes wherewith I clad myself anew and covered my nakedness; after which they took me up into the ship, […]1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night
  2. An amount that fills a container.
    • The mixer returned to the plant for another fill.
  3. The filling of a container or area.
    • That machine can do 20 fills per minute.
    • This paint program supports lines, circles, and textured fills.
  4. Inexpensive material used to occupy empty spaces, especially in construction.
    • The ruins of earlier buildings were used as fill for more recent construction.
    • Strippage from a borrow area was first treated as waste, under the contract, but after passage of time was suitable for fill and was so used.1946, Digest of the Decisions of the Corps of Engineers Board of Contract Appeals, page 101
  5. Soil and/or human-created debris discovered within a cavity or cut in the layers and exposed by excavation; fill soil.
  6. An embankment, as in railroad construction, to fill a hollow or ravine; also, the place which is to be filled.
  7. A short passage, riff, or rhythmic sound that helps to keep the listener's attention during a break between the phrases of a melody.
    • bass fill
    • The second part of recomposed Embroidering Golden Banner achieves the brightness and cheerfulness of music, and presents a cheerful passion through sanda playing methods such as left-hind octave fills, right-hand echo decoration, and encircled decoration.2015, Dawei Zheng, Control, Mechatronics and Automation Technology, →ISBN
  8. The weft yarn.
  9. (crosswording) The answers in a crossword puzzle that are not part of the theme.

Noun (2)

fill (plural fills)

  1. One of the thills or shafts of a carriage.
    • It was a challenge to learn to harness him, guide him slowly back between the fills of the carriage, then to fasten the right buckles and snaps, making the harness and buggy all ready for travel to church or to town.2008, Martha E. Green, Pioneers in Pith Helmets

Proper noun capitalized: Fill

Fill (plural Fills)

  1. A surname transferred from the given name.

Also used as

fill is also the ellipsis of fill light.

fill meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam

fill in Tamil

நிரப்பும், நிரப்பு

fill in Marathi

भरणे, भराव

fill in Bengali

add contents to, so it is full
ভরা bhora

fill in Malayalam

become full of contents
നിറയുക niṟayuka
add contents to, so it is full
നിറയ്ക്കുക niṟaykkuka
enter, making it full
നിറയുക niṟayuka
occupy fully, take up all of
നിറയുക niṟayuka
More languagesFewer languages
fill in Punjabi
ਭਰਾਈ
fill in Gujarati
ભરણ, ભરવાનું
fill in Sanskrit
पृणाति pṛṇā́ti
fill in Arabic
اِمْتَلأَ, مَلَأَ malaʔa
fill in Malay
tambakan
fill in Indonesian
urukan
fill in Thai
ทำให้เต็ม
fill in Myanmar
ဖြည့် hprany.

Examples of fill in a sentence

  • The sails fill with wind
  • To qualify for a home loan, you need to fill a number of requirements.
  • I filled my dreener in no time, and then it come to me that 'twouldn't be a bad idee to get a lot more, take 'em with me to Wellmouth, and peddle 'em out.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter III, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
  • She continued to frown as she filled Bony's cup and added brandy to her own.1950, Arthur W. Upfield, chapter 11, in The Bachelors of Broken Hill:
  • She forgave him the pain as he filled the cavity in her back molar.2005, Wendy Coakley-Thompson, What You Won't Do for Love, published 2006, →ISBN, page 10:
  • He grinned at her as she filled his plate with the eggs and motioned toward the bacon.2006, Gilbert Morris, Sante Fe Woman, B&H, page 95:

All 40 example sentences with fill

Synonyms of fill

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of fill

Forms of fill

Verb
third-person singular presentfills
present participlefilling
past participlefilled
pastfilled
Noun
pluralfills
Proper noun
pluralFills

Past tense of fill: filled

Plural of fill: fills

Origin of fill

From Middle English fillen, fullen, from Old English fyllan (“to fill, fill up, replenish, satisfy; complete, fulfill”), from Proto-West Germanic *fullijan, from Proto-Germanic *fullijaną (“to make full, fill”), from *fullaz (“full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”). Cognate with Scots fill (“to fill”), West Frisian folje (“to fill”), Low German füllen (“to fill”), Dutch vullen (“to fill”), German füllen (“to fill”), Danish fylde (“to fill”), Swedish fylla (“to fill”), Norwegian fylle (“to fill”), Icelandic fylla (“to fill”) and Latin plenus (“full”)

From Middle English fille, vülle, fülle, from Old English fyllu, from Proto-West Germanic *fullī, from Proto-Germanic *fullį̄ (“fullness”). Cognate with German Fülle.

See thill.

Words formed from fill

Phrases with fill

13 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with fill

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about fill

What does fill mean?
Fill means to add contents to (a container, cavity, or the like) so that it is full.
What is fill in Tamil?
Fill in Tamil is நிரப்பும், நிரப்பு. See Fill meaning in Tamil.
How do you use fill in a sentence?
The sails fill with wind
What part of speech is fill?
Fill can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce fill?
Fill is pronounced /fɪl/.
What is the past tense of fill?
The past tense of fill is filled.

Words near fill in the dictionary

  1. filksing
  2. filksinger
  3. filksingers
  4. filksinging
  5. filksings
  6. fill
  7. fill and flee
  8. fill and fly
  9. fill away
  10. fill dirt
  11. fill in

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fill (page history and authors); Fill (page history and authors); fill (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fill (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fill (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); fill (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fill.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fill.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fill. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.