gill
gill (gil)
noun
- the organ for breathing of most animals that live in water, as fish, lobsters, or clams, consisting of a simple saclike or complex feathery evagination of the body surface, usually richly supplied with blood
- the red flesh hanging below the beak of a fowl; wattle
- the flesh under and about the chin and lower jaw of a person
- any of the thin, leaflike, radiating plates on the undersurface of a mushroom, on which the basidiospores are produced
Etymology: ME gile, prob. < Anglo-N < or akin to ON gjǫlnar, jaws, gills, older Dan (fiske) gaeln, Swed gäl < IE base *ghelunā-, jaw > Gr chelynē, lip, jaw
Related Forms:
- gilled (gild) adjective
gill (jil)
noun
Etymology: ME gille < OFr, measure for wine < LL gillo, cooling vessel
gill (jil)
noun
Etymology: contr. of Gillian, proper name < L Juliana, fem. of Julianus: see Julian
gill (gil)
noun
- a wooded ravine or glen
- a narrow stream; brook
Etymology: ME gille < ON gil < IE base *ĝheri-, to gape > yawn, L hiatus
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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