trilling

trilling is the present participle and gerund of trill.

Noun (2)

trilling (plural trillings)

A compound crystal consisting of three individuals.
- Diametrically opposed rays of these stellate groups are of the same optical orientation and the twins are, therefore, trillings ( fig. 29 ).1966, Geological Survey Professional Paper - Issues 509-510, page 55
- Chrysoberyl is orthorhombic in symmetry. Like many orthorhombic minerals, it readily forms an intergrowth with two other individual crystals to make trillings with six sides or, at least, V-shaped twins.1974, Mineral Digest, volumes 6-8, page 148
(obsolete, rare) One of three offspring born at the same birth; a triplet.
- Every 67th lying-in woman has twins, every 5333rd has trillings, and only every 150,000th has fourlings.1842, “Sweden as it is; Moral, Political and Statistical”, in The Foreign Quarterly Review, volume 28, number 55, page 449
- this breed is prominent for its remarkable fecundity and yield of milk; as a rule, this goat litters once a year and drops 2 kids; occasionally trillings and fourlings.1922, The Goat World, Devoted to the Upbuilding of the Goat Industry, page 67

trill (third-person singular simple present trills, present participle trilling, simple past and past participle trilled)

(intransitive) To create a trill sound; to utter trills or a trill; to play or sing in tremulous vibrations of sound; to have a trembling sound; to quaver.
- To judge of trilling notes and tripping feet.1692, John Dryden, Cleomenes, the Spartan Hero, a Tragedy
Synonyms:

warble
(transitive) To impart the quality of a trill to; to utter as, or with, a trill.
- to trill a note, or the letter r

trill (third-person singular simple present trills, present participle trilling, simple past and past participle trilled)

(intransitive, obsolete) To trickle.
- I come now from seeing of a shepheard at Medoc[…]who had no signe at all of genitorie parts: But where they should be, are three little holes, by which his water doth continually tril from him.1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 30, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

trill (third-person singular simple present trills, present participle trilling, simple past and past participle trilled)

trilling (plural trillings)

The production of a trill sound.
- It was pretty close quarters, but I had conversed with her at such length during the nest-building time, that she knew my voice and soon began to answer me in low trillings — trillings that could scarcely be heard — and turn her head to look at me in a friendly way.1906, Jennie Brooks, “ways of the Kentucky Cardinal”, in Harper's Monthly Magazine, volume 112, number 670, page 627
- During the singing act these wing surfaces are moved rapidly on each other, producing the familiar strident trillings of midsummer.1910, Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington

Trilling (plural Trillings)

Compare German Drilling.

10 more rhymesFewer rhymes

What does trilling mean?: Trilling means the production of a trill sound.
What is trilling the present participle and gerund of?: Trilling is the present participle and gerund of trill.
What part of speech is trilling?: Trilling can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of trilling?: The plural of trilling is trillings.

Adapted from Wiktionary: trilling (page history and authors); Trilling (page history and authors); trill (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: 2026-09-02

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