pilly
pilly adjective: covered in pills (particles created by mechanical wear).
Adjective
pilly (comparative pillier, superlative pilliest)
- Covered in pills (particles created by mechanical wear).
- After many washings, my favorite sweater is faded and pilly.
- I gave the superintendent a deposit and I got a room on the third floor with a bed that had sheets and a pilly blanket and a pillow so flat you had to fold it over to rest your head on it.2009, Allegra Goodman, Paradise Park, page 21
- Characterized by or involving many pills.
- Paiuline Eichstadt spent a week at home womewhat indisposed with Eddie as doctor and nursemaid. A pilly and puny vacation he spent.1954, The Louisville & Nashville Employes' Magazine - Volume 30, page 62
Noun (1)
pilly (plural pillies)
- Pill.
- Billy Willy is a dilly, He took a pilly And turned silly1981, Vardine Moore, The Pleasure of Poetry with and by Children, page 118
- Let's tak a little pilly here...I, I need it.2022, Andy Warhol, a: A Novel
- A pillhead.
- The lilly-pilly.
- Withdrawing the smaller blade from his belt, Speezer rolled a pilly pod from the tray and sliced it open With his sharp knife.2001, Mark Harris, The Amazing Adventure in Tovia, page 59
- Pilchard.
- When buying pillies look for IQF fish.2007, Paul Worsteling, Jack Crowley, Fishing Western Port, page 18
- I prefer to have a range of thee different sizes and colours in squid jigs, but you could also try using squid fish spikes and put a pilly on it.2011, Gary Brown, How to Catch Australia's Favourite Saltwater Fish, page 62
- One who rides pillion.
- I attended quite a few other social-group events, made new friends, registered with other motorcycle groups as a pillion, and got out on a few rides. I was really enjoying the riding but sometimes felt frustrated if nobody was available to take a 'pilly' out.2021, Tracy-lee Adams, The Dunce
Noun (2)
pilly (plural pillies)
- pillow
- Kattie! There's another coming. Another mattress and a pilly. Where can we put him?1873 November 29, “A London Pilgrimage among the Boarding-Houses. V. A Merchant Captain's Roost.”, in Charles Dickens, Jr., editor, All the Year Round, A Weekly Journal (New Series), volume...
- She will have to dig a mattress and a pilly from the stair-well.1876, Lewis Strange Wingfield, Slippery ground - Volume 2, page 147
Examples of pilly in a sentence
- One was a young woman with stringy brown hair, a pilly black sweater and fabulous boots of parti-coloured suede.2015, Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao:
- A pilly sweater, one arm still crossed over a pile of cash.2020, Brian Selfon, The Nightworkers:
- Her head it rests upon a pilly And she is not so very silly1914, Lachlan Macbean, Pet Marjorie, page 31:
Forms of pilly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | pillier |
| superlative | pilliest |
| Noun | |
| plural | pillies |
Origin of pilly
From pill + -y. In some cases, pill is a clipping of a longer word.
Words formed from pilly
Phrases with pilly
Words that rhyme with pilly
Questions about pilly
- What does pilly mean?
- Pilly means covered in pills (particles created by mechanical wear).
- How do you use pilly in a sentence?
- One was a young woman with stringy brown hair, a pilly black sweater and fabulous boots of parti-coloured suede.
- What part of speech is pilly?
- Pilly can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near pilly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pilly (page history and authors). 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:
Cite this entry: “pilly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pilly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.