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CHILL

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chill¹

  • /tʃɪl/ US, UK
  • /tʃəl/ New Zealand
  • /dʒɪl(lɯ)/

Sounds like jill · Rhymes with -ɪl

Where it comes from

From Middle English chele, chile, from Old English ċiele, ċele (“cold; coldness”), from Proto-West Germanic *kali, from Proto-Germanic *kaliz, from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to be cold”). Closely related with Dutch kil. Also akin to cool, cold, gel, and congeal, which see.

noun chills

  1. countable, uncountable A moderate, but uncomfortable and penetrating coldness. There was a chill in the air.
  2. countable, uncountable A sudden penetrating sense of cold, especially one that causes a brief trembling nerve response through the body; the trembling response itself; often associated with illness: fevers and chills, or susceptibility to illness. Close the window or you'll catch a chill.
  3. countable, uncountable An uncomfortable and numbing sense of fear, dread, anxiety, or alarm, often one that is sudden and usually accompanied by a trembling nerve response resembling the body's response to biting cold. Despite the heat, he felt a chill as he entered the crime scene.
  4. countable, uncountable An iron mould or portion of a mould, serving to cool rapidly, and so to harden, the surface of molten iron brought in contact with it.
  5. countable, uncountable The hardened part of a casting, such as the tread of a carriage wheel.
  6. countable, uncountable A lack of warmth and cordiality; unfriendliness. However, the chill between the two giants did not last long; every constituency except the Westernizers found virtue in warming up to China.
  7. countable, uncountable Calmness; equanimity. For those of us who relate to that furious paddling in some form (whether we choose to conceal it below the surface or not), we are probably also aware of what, besides the water, we are really clashing against: a culture of chill.
  8. countable, uncountable A sense of style; trendiness; savoir faire. Will and Grace still have no chill; having a pillow fight in the Oval Office proves that.
  9. countable, uncountable A chilling effect; an atmosphere of this. It was a courageous move by these activists, still living in the chill of the Cold War, to face red-baiting for holding protests that turned Washington's charges against the Cuban Revolution back on the U.S. government.

adjective more chill · most chill

  1. Moderately cold or chilly. A chill wind was blowing down the street.
  2. Unwelcoming; not cordial. Arriving late at the wedding, we were met with a chill reception.
  3. slang Calm, relaxed, easygoing. The teacher is really chill and doesn't care if you use your phone during class.
  4. slang "Cool"; meeting a certain hip standard or garnering the approval of a certain peer group. That new movie was chill, man.
  5. slang Okay, not a problem. Sorry about that. —It's chill.

chill²

Where it comes from

From Middle English chillen, from Old English ċilian (“to be cold”), from Proto-West Germanic *kilēn (“to be cold”). Cognate with Middle Dutch killen (“to be cold”), Dutch killen (“to be cold, shiver”).

verb chills · chilling · chilled

  1. transitive To lower the temperature of something; to cool. Chill before serving.
  2. intransitive To become cold. In the wind he chilled quickly.
  3. transitive To harden a metal surface by sudden cooling.
  4. intransitive To become hard by rapid cooling.
  5. intransitive, slang To relax; to lie back; to take things easy. Chill, man, we've got a whole week to do it; no sense in getting worked up.
  6. intransitive, slang To "hang", hang out; to spend time with another person or group. Hey, we should chill this weekend.
  7. intransitive, slang To smoke marijuana. On Friday night do you wanna chill?
  8. figuratively, transitive To discourage, depress. Censorship chills public discourse.

chill³

Where it comes from

From Middle English ichille, equivalent to ch- + will, from ich + will.

contraction ch'ill · 'chill

  1. West Country, contraction, obsolete I will Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'casion

chill⁴

noun chills

  1. Cornwall, obsolete A kind of lamp that burns fish oil. There is a last antiquity, and perhaps not least interesting, in "the Chill" or fish oil lamp, peculiar to Cornwall and a remote age, which now I lay before you. These lamps are rarely, very rarely seen, never in use, and passing from the memories of all but the very aged.

CHILL⁵

proper noun

  1. abbreviation, acronym Acronym of CCITT High Level Language.CCITT High Level Language

Chill⁶

Where it comes from

Variant of Child.

proper noun Chills

  1. A surname.

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