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tilly

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tilly¹

  • /ˈtɪli/

Rhymes with -ɪli

Where it comes from

From Irish tuilleadh (“more”).

noun tillies

  1. Ireland An extra product given to a customer at no additional charge; a lagniappe. Myles: "Indeed your Honour may safely say so : Iwas ploughing away […] when I bethought how I forgot to tell little Jem, when he'd be buying my pen'orth of snuff, to be sure to get it in two separate ha'porths, the way he'd have the two tillies. So what could Ido but run home, to […] go myself for t

    Similar: lagniappe, pasella

tilly²

  • /ˈtɪli/

Rhymes with -ɪli

Where it comes from

From WWII British Army usage Tilly (“name of a range of British Army vehicles”), from utility.

noun tillies · Tilly

  1. UK A small open-backed truck. After a fortnight's careful nursing my leg healed and I was packed off in a tilly (utility truck) with my kit-bag to join my comrades at Fairmilehead.

    Similar: ute

tilly³

  • /ˈtɪli/

Rhymes with -ɪli

adjective more tilly · most tilly

  1. Containing till (unsorted glacial sediment).

Tilly⁴

  • /ˈtɪli/

Rhymes with -ɪli

Where it comes from

* (given name, nickname): Shortened from Matilda, + -y.

* (surname): The surname may also have origins as a matronymic from Matilda.

proper noun Tillys

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Matilda. Tilly's name is Matilda. It was typical of Mum and Dad that they wouldn't let her be called Tilly when she came to them because that was the unusual shortening of Matilda, the unconventional one, and you never did unconventional things, you never did things to draw attention to yourself. So they cal
  2. A surname transferred from the given name.

Tilly⁵

  • /ˈtɪli/

Rhymes with -ɪli

Where it comes from

From French Tilly. Habitational surname from places in France named Tilly, brought to England by the Normans.

proper noun Tillys

  1. countable, uncountable A number of places in France.
  2. countable, uncountable A surname from Old French. .

Tilly⁶

  • /ˈtɪli/

Rhymes with -ɪli

Where it comes from

Diminutive of utility.

noun Tillies

  1. Alternative letter-case form of tilly By the time he stooped to lift him up, we were all in the Tilly that Fiver had brought out to meet us.

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Cite this
MLA

"tilly." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/tilly. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

tilly. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/tilly

Chicago

"tilly." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/tilly.

BibTeX
@misc{tilly_2026,
  title = {tilly},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/tilly},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}