quill

/kwɪl/

quill noun: the lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.

Image: W.carter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

quill (plural quills)

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

Synonyms:

calamus
A pen made from a feather.
- The note was written in a delicate hand with a crow-quill, on primrose-coloured paper, with a lilac seal—the motto "tout à vous;" and the whole with just a faint perfume of jasmine.1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 77
Synonyms:

feather pen, quill pen
(broadly) Any pen.
- He picked up his quill and wrote a poem.
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.
- I could a Tale vnfold, vvhoſe lighteſt vvord / VVould harrovv vp thy ſoule, freeze thy young blood, / Make thy tvvo eyes like Starres, ſtart from their Spheres, / Thy knotty and combined locks to part, / And each particular haire to ſtand an end, / Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine: […]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.
The pen of a squid.
The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.
The tube of a musical instrument.
- He touched the tender stops of various quills.1637 (date written; published 1638), John Milton, “Lycidas”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC
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.
- His hair still stood up in punk-rock quills and spikes.1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger
A quill drive, having a hollow shaft with another movable shaft inside it.
- The motors are attached to the bogie frames so as to be fully springborne, and drive through quills and flexible couplings to the wheels.1952 September, “A Landmark in French Electrification”, in Railway Magazine, page 593

Verb

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

To pierce with quills. (Usually in the passive voice, as be quilled or get quilled.)
- Coyotes, bears, and mountain lions which occasionally kill porcupines are sometimes quilled.1966, David Francis Costello, The World of the Porcupine, J. B. Lippincott & Company, page 66
- 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.2010, Mark Parman, A Grouse Hunter's Almanac: The Other Kind of Hunting, University of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page 49
(figuratively) To write.
- Nibs never would have quilled a seriph to sheepskin.1939 May 4, James Joyce, Finnegans Wake, London: Faber and Faber Limited, →OCLC; republished London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1960, →OCLC, part I, page 182
- 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.1976, Ed Sanders, Investigative Poetry, City Lights, published 1976, page 11
To form fabric into small, rounded folds.
To decorate with quillwork.
- 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...2007, David J. Wishart, Encyclopedia of the Great Plains Indians, University of Nebraska Press, published 2007, →ISBN, page 32
(Canada, US, transitive, especially Appalachia and the Prairies) 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.

Proper noun capitalized: Quill

Quill (plural Quills)

A surname from Irish.

quill meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

quill in Tamil

உளி பிடிப்பான், உளிபிடிப்பான், உளிப்பிடி, கதிர்த் தாங்கி, இறகு, சிறகு

quill in Urdu

quill: پر par

More languagesFewer languages

quill in Bengali: কলম, শর, হংসের পালক, শজারুর কাঁটা
quill in Telugu: క్విల్
quill in Malayalam: സാരംഗം sāraṅgaṁ
quill in Kannada: ದೊಡ್ಡಗರಿ, ಮುಳ್ಳು, ಗರಿಬರಿಗೆ
quill in Punjabi: ਤੱਕਲ਼ਾ takkaḷā
quill in Gujarati: ક્વિલ, ક્વીલ
quill in Odia: କ୍ୱିଲ୍, କୁଇଲ, କ୍ୱିଲ
quill in Nepali: क्विल, कुइल, क्विल गर्न
quill in Arabic: إِبْرَة ʔibra, شَوْكَة šawka
quill in Thai: ปากกาขนนก, ปากกา bpàak-gaa
quill in Myanmar: ဖြူဆူး hpruhcu:

Examples of quill in a sentence

No porcupine can throw its quills, but they detach easily and will remain embedded in an attacker.
It's good that I wasn't a wereporcupine, or his mouth would be full of quills.
He collects his penner that holds his writing quills, his knife, and his horn tube containing ink.

All 32 example sentences with quill

Synonyms of quill

Forms of quill

Noun
plural	quills
Verb
third-person singular present	quills
present participle	quilling
past participle	quilled
past	quilled
Proper noun
plural	Quills

Plural of quill: quills

Origin of quill

From late Middle English quyl, 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 *gʷelH- (“to pierce, stick”). Compare Middle High German kil (“large feather, quill”), which is derived from the Low German term.

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Cuill (“descendant of Coll”), a byname from coll (“hazel tree”).

Words formed from quill

Phrases with quill

Words that rhyme with quill

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about quill

What does quill mean?: Quill means the lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.
What is quill in Hindi?: Quill in Hindi is पर (par). See Quill meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is quill?: Quill can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce quill?: Quill is pronounced /kwɪl/.
What is the plural of quill?: The plural of quill is quills.

Words near quill in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-quill.wav.

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