Drill /(?)/

Drill

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Drilled; p. pr. & vb. n. Drilling

  1. To pierce or bore with a drill, or a with a drill; to perforate; as, to drill a hole into a rock; to drill a piece of metal.
  2. To train in the military art; to exercise diligently, as soldiers, in military evolutions and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline.
    He [Frederic the Great] drilled his people, as he drilled his grenadiers.

Drill

v. i.
  1. To practice an exercise or exercises; to train one's self.

Drill

n.
  1. An instrument with an edged or pointed end used for making holes in hard substances; strictly, a tool that cuts with its end, by revolving, as in drilling metals, or by a succession of blows, as in drilling stone; also, a drill press.
  2. The act or exercise of training soldiers in the military art, as in the manual of arms, in the execution of evolutions, and the like; hence, diligent and strict instruction and exercise in the rudiments and methods of any business; a kind or method of military exercises; as, infantry drill; battalion drill; artillery drill. (Mil.)
  3. Any exercise, physical or mental, enforced with regularity and by constant repetition; as, a severe drill in Latin grammar.
  4. A marine gastropod, of several species, which kills oysters and other bivalves by drilling holes through the shell. The most destructive kind is Urosalpinx cinerea. (Zool.)

Phrases & Compounds

Bow drill
See under Bow, Breast.
Cotter drill
a machine tool for drilling slots.
Diamond drill
See under Diamond.
Drill jig
See under Jig.
Drill pin
the pin in a lock which enters the hollow stem of the key.
Drill sergeant
a noncommissioned officer whose office it is to instruct soldiers as to their duties, and to train them to military exercises and evolutions.
Vertical drill
a drill press.

Drill

v. t.
  1. To cause to flow in drills or rills or by trickling; to drain by trickling; as, waters drilled through a sandy stratum. [R.]
  2. To sow, as seeds, by dribbling them along a furrow or in a row, like a trickling rill of water.
  3. To entice; to allure from step; to decoy; -- with on. [Obs.]
    See drilled him on to five-fifty.
  4. To cause to slip or waste away by degrees. [Obs.]
    This accident hath drilled away the whole summer.

Drill

v. i.
  1. To trickle. [Obs. or R.]
  2. To sow in drills.

Drill

n.
  1. A small trickling stream; a rill. [Obs.]
    Springs through the pleasant meadows pour their drills.
    — Sandys.
  2. An implement for making holes for sowing seed, and sometimes so formed as to contain seeds and drop them into the hole made. (Agr.)

Phrases & Compounds

Drill barrow
a wheeled implement for planting seed in drills.
Drill bow
a small bow used for the purpose of rapidly turning a drill around which the bowstring takes a turn.
Drill harrow
a harrow used for stirring the ground between rows, or drills.
Drill plow
a sort plow for sowing grain in drills.

Drill

n.
  1. A large African baboon (Cynocephalus leucophæus). (Zool.)

Drill

n.
  1. Same as Drilling. (Manuf.)

Phrases & Compounds

Imperial drill
a linen fabric having two threads in the warp and three in the filling.