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bill

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Bill and bíll

English

 bill on Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • Audio (UK, "the bill"):(file)

Etymology 1

    From Middle English bille, from Anglo-Norman bille, from Old French bulle, from Medieval Latin bulla (“seal, sealed document”). Doublet of bull (“papal bull; bubble”) and bulla.

    Noun

    bill (plural bills)

    1. A written list or inventory. (Now obsolete except in specific senses or set phrases; bill of lading, bill of goods, etc.)
    2. A document, originally sealed; a formal statement or official memorandum. (Now obsolete except with certain qualifying words; bill of health, bill of sale etc.)
    4. A draft of a law, presented to a legislature for enactment; a proposed or projected law.
      Synonym: measure
      Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Prime Minister, I beg to introduce a bill entitled […]
      • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], line 28:
        Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the putting down of men.
      • 2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 188, number 2, page 23:
        David Cameron insists that his latest communications data bill is “vital to counter terrorism”. Yet terror is mayhem. It is no threat to freedom. That threat is from counter-terror, from ministers capitulating to securocrats.
    5. (obsolete, law) A declaration made in writing, stating some wrong the complainant has suffered from the defendant, or a fault committed by some person against a law.
    7. (US, Canada) A piece of paper money; a banknote.
      • 1830, anonymous author, The Galaxy of Wit: Or, Laughing Philosopher, Being a Collection of Choice Anecdotes, Many of Which Originated in or about "The Literary Emporium":
        He gave the change for a three dollar bill. Upon examination, the bill proved to be counterfeit.
      • 1935, Cabins in the Laurel‎, University of North Carolina Press, published 19 March 2014, →ISBN, page 231:
        […] So I wropped 'em up in a five dollar bill and tied 'em up and sent 'em, and they ain't back yet.”
      • 1970, “Friend of the Devil”, performed by Grateful Dead:
        I ran into the Devil, babe, he loaned me 20 bills.
      1. (slang, Canada, US) One hundred dollars.
        • 1954, Budd Schulberg, On the Waterfront, Random House, page 25:
          There was no excuse, simply no excuse for not making four or five bills a week. A little initiative, that's all.
        • 1989, Carl Hiaasen, Skin Tight, Penguin Group, →ISBN, page 113:
          All we got from her was Stranahan's location, and barely that. A house in the bay, she said. A house with a windmill. Easiest five bills that woman ever made.
    8. (slang, UK) One hundred pounds sterling.
      • 2023, BBC News: "Newport: Drugs gang jailed for exploiting vulnerable child"
        In the conversation Henshall says he [sic] "struggling to find people to go up the roads" explaining how it would be "no good for black people" and how they need a "young white boy to go up there".
        Stock agrees, saying how he knows "this kid" who "owes me 12 bills".
    10. A written note of goods sold, services rendered, or work done, with the price or charge owing; an invoice.
      He received a bill of £9 for the groceries.
      Synonyms: account, invoice
    12. (slang, India) A written note of goods sold, services rendered, or work done, listing the price or charge paid; a receipt.
    14. A paper, written or printed, and posted up or given away, to advertise something, as a lecture, a play, or the sale of goods
      Synonyms: broadsheet, broadside, card, circular, flier, flyer, handbill, poster, posting, placard, notice, throwaway
    15. A writing that binds the signer or signers to pay a certain sum at a future day or on demand, with or without interest, as may be stated in the document; a bill of exchange. In the United States, it is usually called a note, a note of hand, or a promissory note.
      Synonyms: bank bill, banker's bill, bank note, banknote, Federal Reserve note, government note, greenback, note
    16. A set of items presented together.
      • 2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in the Guardian‎:
        Meanwhile, the bills on the main stages skewed towards mainstream pop, with mixed results. Lorde’s Friday evening Other stage appearance was one of the weekend’s highlights. The staging and choreography were fantastic – a giant glass tank on a hydraulic platform, in and around which a troupe of dancers acted out the highs and lows of a teenage party
    17. (UK, Eton College) A list of pupils to be disciplined for breaking school rules.
      • 1875, Sir H. C. Maxwell Lyte, A History of Eton College, 1440-1875, page 373:
        One of the best stories of the period describes the misadventure of a batch of candidates for confirmation whose names were by accident sent up to the Head-Master on a piece of paper identical in size and shape with the "bill" used by the Masters for the purpose of reporting delinquents. Keate, we are told, insisted on flogging all the boys mentioned in the document […]
    Derived terms
    Descendants
    • → Swahili: bili
    • → Thai: บิล (bin)
    • → Tokelauan: pili
    • → Jamaican Creole: bills
    Translations
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
    Translations to be checked
    See also

    Verb

    bill (third-person singular simple present bills, present participle billing, simple past and past participle billed)

    1. (transitive) To advertise by a bill or public notice.
      Synonym: placard
      • 1962 October, G. Freeman Allen, “First impressions of the Clacton electric multiple-units”, in Modern Railways, page 260:
        [...] it will be recalled that in 1960 they were billed as the long-distance express multiple-units of the future, [...].
    2. (transitive) To charge; to send a bill to.
      Synonym: charge
      • 1989, Michelle Green, Understanding Health Insurance: A Guide to Billing and Reimbursement:
        The physician explains that this is an option for her and that she can sign the facility's ABN so that if Medicare denies the claim, the facility can bill her for the scan.
    Derived terms
    Translations

    Etymology 2

      From Middle English bill, bil, bille, bile, from Old English bile (“beak (of a bird); trunk (of an elephant)”), of unknown origin. Perhaps from a special use of Old English bil, bill (“hook; sword”) (see below).

      Noun

      bill (plural bills)

      2. (zootomy) The beak of a bird, especially when small or flattish; sometimes also used with reference to a platypus, turtle, or other animal.
        Synonyms: beak, neb, nib, pecker
        • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], line 125:
          The woosel cock so black of hue, With orange-tawny bill, The throstle with his note so true, The wren with little quill […]
        • 2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25 December 2014, page 7]”, in The New York Times‎, archived from the original on 23 December 2014:
          […] The flesh [of the mistletoe berry] is sticky, and forms strings and ribbons between my thumb and forefinger. For the mistletoe, this viscous goop – and by the way, viscous comes to English from viscum – is crucial. The stickiness means that, after eating the berries, birds often regurgitate the seeds and then wipe their bills on twigs – leading to the seeds' getting glued to the tree, where they can germinate and begin the cycle anew.
      4. A beaklike projection, especially a promontory.
        There is a lighthouse on Portland Bill.
      6. Of a cap or hat: the brim or peak, serving as a shade to keep sun off the face and out of the eyes.
        Synonyms: brim, hatbrim
      Derived terms
      Translations

      Verb

      bill (third-person singular simple present bills, present participle billing, simple past and past participle billed)

      1. (obsolete) to peck
      2. to stroke bill against bill, with reference to doves; to caress in fondness
      Derived terms
      Translations

      Etymology 3

        From Middle English bill, bille, bil, from Old English bil, bill (“a hooked point; curved weapon; two-edged sword”), from Proto-Germanic *bilją (“axe; sword; blade”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyH- (“to strike; beat”). Cognate with West Frisian bile (“axe”), Dutch bijl (“axe”), German Bille (“axe”).

        Noun

        bill (plural bills)

        2. Any of various bladed or pointed hand weapons, originally designating an Anglo-Saxon sword, and later a weapon of infantry, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries, commonly consisting of a broad, heavy, double-edged, hook-shaped blade, with a short pike at the back and another at the top, attached to the end of a long staff.
          Synonym: polearm
        4. A cutting instrument, with hook-shaped point, and fitted with a handle, used in pruning, etc.; a billhook.
          Synonyms: billhook, hand bill, hedgebill
        6. Somebody armed with a bill; a billman.
          Synonym: billman
        8. A pickaxe or mattock.
        10. (nautical) The extremity of the arm of an anchor; the point of or beyond the fluke (also called the peak).
        Derived terms
        Translations

        Verb

        bill (third-person singular simple present bills, present participle billing, simple past and past participle billed)

        1. (transitive) To dig, chop, etc., with a bill.
        Translations

        Etymology 4

        Of onomatopoeic origin.

        Noun

        bill (plural bills)

        1. The bell, or boom, of the bittern.

        Etymology 5

          From a pronunciation spelling of build.

          Verb

          bill (third-person singular simple present bills, present participle billing, simple past and past participle billed)

          1. (ambitransitive, UK, slang) To roll up a marijuana cigarette.
          Derived terms
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          Cimbrian

          Etymology 1

          From Middle High German wille, from Old High German willo, from Proto-Germanic *wiljô (“will, wish, desire”). Cognate with German Wille, English will.

          Noun

          bill m

          1. (Sette Comuni) will (legal document)
            Synonym: testamentén

          Etymology 2

          From Middle High German wilde, from Old High German wildi, from Proto-West Germanic *wilþī, from Proto-Germanic *wilþijaz (“wild”). Cognate with German wild, English wild.

          Adjective

          bill (comparative billor, superlative dar billorste) (Sette Comuni)

          1. wild, crazy, mad
          2. wild (not domesticated)
          3. stupid
          Declension
          Positive forms of bill
          More information number & gender, singular ...
          Comparative forms of bill
          More information number & gender, singular ...
          Superlative forms of bill
          More information number & gender, singular ...
          Derived terms

          References

          • “bill” in Martalar, Umberto Martello; Bellotto, Alfonso (1974), Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo
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          East Central German

          Etymology

          Compare German bisschen.

          Adverb

          bill

          1. (Erzgebirgisch) (often with e or a) (a) little
            Namm liebr e bill meh!
            Better take a little more!

          Further reading

          • Hendrik Heidler (11 June 2020), Hendrik Heidler's 400 Seiten: Echtes Erzgebirgisch: Wuu de Hasen Hoosn haaßn un de Hosen Huusn do sei mir drhamm: Das Original Wörterbuch: Ratgeber und Fundgrube der erzgebirgischen Mund- und Lebensart: Erzgebirgisch – Deutsch / Deutsch – Erzgebirgisch‎ (in German), 3. geänderte Auflage edition, Norderstedt: BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 23

          French

          Etymology

          Borrowed from English bill; doublet of bulle (“bubble”).

          Pronunciation

          Noun

          bill m (plural bills)

          1. (law) bill (draft UK law)
          2. (North America) bill (invoice in a restaurant etc)

          Further reading

          Old English

          Pronunciation

          Noun

          bill n

          1. alternative form of bil

          Swedish

          Pronunciation

          Etymology 1

          From Old Swedish bilder, from Old Norse bíldr, from Proto-Germanic *bīþlaz (“axe”). An instrumental derivation of *bītaną (“to bite”). Closely related to bila (“broadaxe”).

          Noun

          bill c

          1. (agriculture) a share; the cutting blade of a plough
          Declension
          More information nominative, genitive ...
          Derived terms
          • plogbill

          Etymology 2

          Borrowed from English bill, from Middle English bille, from Anglo-Norman bille, from Old French bulle, from Medieval Latin bulla (“seal, sealed document”). Doublet of bulla.

          Noun

          bill c

          1. (law) a draft of a law in English-speaking countries
          Declension
          More information nominative, genitive ...

          References

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