till

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   work land as by ploughing, harrowing, and manuring, in order to make it ready for cultivation

   till the soil

2. 2
   prep

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

   She stayed till the very end.

3. 3
   prep

   Before (a certain time or event).

   It's twenty till two. (1:40)

4. 4
   prep

   To, up to (physically).

   They led him till his tent

5. 5
   prep

   To, toward (in attitude).

   "Here's at you old hoss!" hiccupped I, with a friendly pitch in the way of a nod at Rice. "Go it, young grampus, that's me! Here's till ye, my infant progidy!" replied he, as he clinked his glass against mine.

6. 6
   prep

   So that (something may happen).

   1953?, Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot VLADIMIR: Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how? (He reflects.) Get up till I embrace you.

7. 7
   conj

   Until, until the time that.

   Maybe you can, maybe you can't: you won't know till you try.

8. 8
   noun

   A cash register.

   I got most of the money to pay for all this by stealing. It was very wrong. Today I'm so finickity that I fired one of my staff for nicking twenty-pence worth of curtain hangers from Barkers because he couldn't be bothered to wait at the till queue.

Etymology

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”).