tiller
/ˈtɪlə/US/ˈtɪlɚ/
tiller noun: a person who tills; a farmer.
Noun (1)
tiller (plural tillers)
- A person who tills; a farmer.
- In France, Europe's most fertile and cultivated land, the tillers of it suffered more and more hunger.2000, Alasdair Gray, The Book of Prefaces, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 63
- A machine that mechanically tills the soil.
- Synonyms:
- cultivator
Noun (2)
tiller (plural tillers)
- A young tree.
- first you must provide you of a Ladder to ascend the top of your Pit : this they usually make of a curved Tiller fit to apply to the convex shape of the heap1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal...
- A shoot of a plant which springs from the root or bottom of the original stalk; a sapling; a sucker.
Verb
tiller (third-person singular simple present tillers, present participle tillering, simple past and past participle tillered)
- To produce new shoots from the root or from around the bottom of the original stalk; stool.
Noun (3)
tiller (plural tillers)
- The stock; a beam on a crossbow carved to fit the arrow, or the point of balance in a longbow.
- You can shoot in a tiller.c. 1608–1610, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “Philaster: Or, Love Lies a Bleeding”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679...
- A bar of iron or wood connected with the rudderhead and leadline, usually forward, in which the rudder is moved as desired by the tiller (FM 55-501).
- The handle of the rudder which the helmsman holds to steer the boat, a piece of wood or metal extending forward from the rudder over or through the transom. Generally attached at the top of the rudder.
- A steering wheel, usually mounted on the lower portion of the captain's control column, which is used to steer the aircraft's nosewheel or tailwheel to provide steering during taxi.
- A handle; a stalk.
- The rear-wheel steering control, aboard a tiller truck.
- A small drawer; a till.
- But search her cabinet, and thou shalt find
Each tiller there with love-epistles lin'd1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Sixth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […]...
- But search her cabinet, and thou shalt find
Proper noun capitalized: Tiller
Tiller (countable and uncountable, plural Tillers)
- A surname originating as an occupation.
- An unincorporated community in Douglas County, Oregon, United States.
- A suburb of Trondheim, formerly a municipality in Sør-Trøndelag, Norway.
tiller meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Arabic
tiller in Tamil
- உழவர், உழுபவர், வேளாண்மையாளர், வேளாளர், பக்கக் கன்று, சுக்கான் பிடி
tiller in Malayalam
- ഉഴുന്നവൻ, കപ്പലിൻറെ ചുക്കാൻ പിടിക്കാനുളള പിടി, മുള
tiller in Kannada
- ಉಳುಬಂಡಿ, ಉಳುವಣಿಗೆ, ನೇಗಿಲು
tiller in Arabic
- person
- زَارِع zāriʕ
Synonyms of tiller
Forms of tiller
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | tillers |
| alternative form | tillow |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | tillers |
| present participle | tillering |
| past participle | tillered |
| past | tillered |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Tillers |
Origin of tiller
From Middle English tilier; equivalent to till + -er.
From Middle English telȝre, telgra, from Old English telgor, telgra, telgre ("twig, branch, shoot") (also telga, telge (whence tillow)), from Proto-West Germanic *telguʀ, from Proto-Germanic *telguz (“twig, branch”), from Proto-Indo-European *delgʰ- (“to split, divide, cut, carve”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tälge (“sapling”), Dutch telg (“descendant, scion, offshoot, shoot”), Dutch Low Saxon telge (“twig, branch”), German Zelge (“twig, branch, bough”), Swedish telning (“branch, scion, sapling”), Icelandic tág (“willow-twig”).
From Middle English teler, from Anglo-Norman telier (“beam used in weaving”), from Medieval Latin telarium, from Latin tēla (“web”).
Words formed from tiller
- power tiller
- tiller-beam
- Tillerson
- tiller yoke
- even hand at the tiller
- even hand on the tiller
- firm hand at the tiller
- firm hand on the tiller
- steady hand on the tiller
- strong hand at the tiller
- strong hand on the tiller
- sure hand at the tiller
- sure hand on the tiller
- tiller extension
- tillerless
- tillerman
- tiller truck
Phrases with tiller
- tiller yokes
- tiller trucks
- tiller extensions
- even hands at the tiller
- even hands on the tiller
- firm hands at the tiller
- firm hands on the tiller
- sure hands at the tiller
- sure hands on the tiller
- steady hand at the tiller
- steady hands at the tiller
- steady hands on the tiller
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with tiller
Questions about tiller
- What does tiller mean?
- Tiller means a person who tills; a farmer.
- What is tiller in Tamil?
- Tiller in Tamil is உழவர், உழுபவர், வேளாண்மையாளர். See Tiller meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is tiller?
- Tiller can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce tiller?
- Tiller is pronounced /ˈtɪlə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of tiller?
- The plural of tiller is tillers.
Words near tiller in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tiller (page history and authors); Tiller (page history and authors); tiller (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tiller (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); tiller (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tiller.wav.
Cite this entry: “tiller.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tiller. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.