fill

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To make something become full.

   She filled the glass with cold water.

2. 2
   verb

   To become full.

   The pool slowly filled with rainwater overnight.

3. 3
   verb

   To take up the whole of a space.

   The smell of fresh bread filled the kitchen.

4. 4
   verb

   To put a substance into a hole or gap to close it.

   The dentist filled the cavity in my tooth.

5. 5
   noun

   As much of something as you want or need.

   We ate our fill and could not manage another bite.

Common collocations

• fill a cup Verb + noun
• fill a glass Verb + noun
• fill a hole Verb + noun
• fill the sky Verb + noun
• fill a position Verb + noun
• fill the air Verb + noun
• fill with wonder Verb + noun

From Middle English fillen, fullen, from Old English fyllan (“to fill, fill up, replenish, satisfy; complete, fulfill”), from Proto-West Germanic *fullijan, from Proto-Germanic *fullijaną (“to make full, fill”), from *fullaz (“full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₁nós (“full”). Cognate with Scots fill (“to fill”), West Frisian folje (“to fill”), Low German füllen (“to fill”), Dutch vullen (“to fill”), German füllen (“to fill”), Danish fylde (“to fill”), Swedish fylla (“to fill”), Norwegian fylle (“to fill”), Icelandic fylla (“to fill”) and Latin plenus (“full”)

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