gill
/ˈd͡ʒɪl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.63 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A gill slit or gill cover.
noun
One of the radial folds on the underside of the cap of a mushroom, the surface of which bears the spore-producing organs.
Example Sentences
- "Fishes […] perform their respiration under water by the gills."
- "Gill nets are designed to catch a fish by the gills."
- "dropsy fills you to the gills"
- "As we had fish home in the icebox, when Bill led the fish up alongside, I leaned over the combing, gilled the fish with my fingers, slid out the hook and let go. The bass lay there for a moment, tired from the arch of the rod and the pull of the line."
- "She gutted and gilled the fish, then scaled it."
- "Owing to the peculiar shape of the pompano and the relatively large mesh in the pompano gill nets, the fish are not caught by being actually gilled."
Etymology
From Middle English gille, gylle (“gill”), of North Germanic origin, akin to Danish gælle, Swedish gäl, Norwegian gjelle, and further to Old Norse gjǫlnar (“lips”), which also may have had the meaning of "gills" (based on Old Danish fiskegæln (“gills”)). The Old Norse word has been suggested as deriving from Proto-Germanic *gelunō (“jaw”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰel-, which would make it root-cognate to Ancient Greek χελύνη (khelúnē, “lip, jaw”), χεῖλος (kheîlos, “lip”). Displaced native Old English ċīe.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- Transitive verb
- Intransitive verb
- American usage
- Dated
- British usage
- Archaic
- Obsolete