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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

till.

Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time).

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

prep/tɪl/
  1. Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time).

    She stayed till the very end.
    I have to work till eight o'clock tonight.
  2. Before (a certain time or event).

    It's twenty till two. (1:40)
  3. To, up to (physically).

    dialectal · obsolete
    They led him till his tent
  4. To, toward (in attitude).

    dialectal · obsolete
  5. So that (something may happen).

    dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English til, from Northern Old English til, from or akin to Old Norse til (“to, till”); both from Proto-Germanic *til (“to, toward”), from Proto-Germanic *tilą (“planned point in time”). Not a contraction of until; rather, until comes from till with the prefix un- (“against; toward; up to”) also found in unto. Cognate with Old Frisian til (“to, till”), Danish til (“to”), Swedish till (“to, till”), Icelandic til (“to, till”). Also related to Old English til (“good”), German Ziel (“goal”), Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌻 (til, “something fitting or suitable”).

conj/tɪl/
  1. Until, until the time that.

    Maybe you can, maybe you can't: you won't know till you try.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English til, from Northern Old English til, from or akin to Old Norse til (“to, till”); both from Proto-Germanic *til (“to, toward”), from Proto-Germanic *tilą (“planned point in time”). Not a contraction of until; rather, until comes from till with the prefix un- (“against; toward; up to”) also found in unto. Cognate with Old Frisian til (“to, till”), Danish til (“to”), Swedish till (“to, till”), Icelandic til (“to, till”). Also related to Old English til (“good”), German Ziel (“goal”), Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌻 (til, “something fitting or suitable”).

noun/tɪl/
  1. A cash register.

    UK
  2. A removable box within a cash register containing the money.

    Pull all the tills and lock them in the safe.
    When you've finished serving that customer could you jump off please? We need to take the till.
  3. The contents of a cash register, for example at the beginning or end of the day or of a cashier's shift.

    My count of my till was 30 dollars short.
  4. A cash drawer in a bank, used by a teller.

  5. A tray or drawer in a chest.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tylle (“till”), possibly from Middle English tillen (“to draw”) from Old English *tyllan (“to draw, attract”) (as in betyllan (“to lure, decoy”) and fortyllan (“to draw away”); related to *tollian > Middle English tollen). Cognate with Albanian ndjell (“to lure, attract”). Alternatively, Middle English tylle is from Anglo-Norman tylle (“compartment”), from Old French tille (“compartment, shelter on a ship”), from Old Norse þilja (“plank”).

verb/tɪl/
  1. To develop so as to improve or prepare for usage; to cultivate (said of knowledge, virtue, mind etc.).

    transitive
  2. To work or cultivate or plough (soil); to prepare for growing vegetation and crops.

    transitive
  3. To cultivate soil.

    intransitive
  4. To prepare; to get.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English tilyen, from Old English tilian.

noun/tɪl/
  1. glacial drift consisting of a mixture of clay, sand, pebbles and boulders

  2. manure or other material used to fertilize land

    dialectal
Where this word comes from

Unknown, but possibly via etymology 3 (the verb) because alluvial deposit is used as a fertilizer.

noun/tɪl/
  1. A vetch; a tare.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English tylle; shortened from lentile (English lentil).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.