trillings

Noun (1)

trilling (plural trillings)

1. 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

Noun (2)

trilling (plural trillings)

1. 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
2. (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

See all 4 meanings of trilling