Pill vs Capsule - What's the difference?
pill | capsule |
A small, usually cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
* 1864 , Benjamin Ellis, The Medical Formulary [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC14843090&id=pHoMvHRmrlIC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=%22take+two+pills%22&as_brr=1]
(senseid) Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill.
* 1986 , Jurriaan Plesman,
(slang) A comical or entertaining person.
(slang) A contemptible, annoying, or unpleasant person.
* {{quote-book, year=1960
, author=
, title=(Jeeves in the Offing)
, section=chapter IV
, passage=You see, he's egging Phyllis on to marry Wilbert Cream. [...] And when a man like that eggs, something has to give, especially when the girl's a pill like Phyllis, who always does what Daddy tells her.}}
* 2000 , Susan Isaacs, Shining Through [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0061030155&id=6_1FJWFEYGoC&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=%22a+real+pill%22&sig=RCUR5O3MhNXeq8rMOnx9-LR5Mfo]
(informal) A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibres formed on the surface of a textile by rubbing.
* 1999 , Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0060987561&id=LOYeA9GmrEwC&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=%22sweater+pills%22&sig=U11GOkTpfHlqyGyIdk7ZNZ0GNuI]
A baseball.
* 2002 , John Klima, Pitched Battle: 35 of Baseball's Greatest Duels from the Mound [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0786412038&id=G126RsLD3MsC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=%22threw+the+pill%22&sig=NmyoxWN_bP5AHc9imVPMTxY7lvw]
(firearms) (informal) a bullet (projectile)
(textiles) Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber.
* 1997 , Jo Sharp, Knitted Sweater Style: Inspirations in Color [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1561581895&id=l5h-cGU5HUYC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=sweater+pilling&sig=6gfLWBL1QHVQZmbSYhJ4oipm8Kc]
To form into the shape of a pill.
To medicate with pills.
(label) To peel; to remove the outer layer of hair, skin, or bark.
To peel; to make by removing the skin.
*(Bible), (w) xxx. 37
*:[Jacob] pilled white streaksin the rods.
To be peeled; to peel off in flakes.
(label) To pillage; to despoil or impoverish.
*:
*:So syr Lucan departed for he was greuously wounded in many places And so as he yede he sawe and herkened by the mone lyght how that pyllars and robbers were comen in to the felde To pylle and robbe many a ful noble knyghte of brochys and bedys of many a good rynge & of many a ryche Iewel / and who that were not deed al oute
:(Spenser)
The peel or skin.
* Holland
(physiology) A membranous envelope.
(botany) A type of simple, dehiscent, dry fruit (seed-case) produced by many species of flowering plants, such as poppy, lily, orchid, willow and cotton.
(botany) A sporangium, especially in bryophytes.
*
A detachable part of a rocket or spacecraft (usually in the nose) containing the crew's living space.
(pharmacy) A small container containing a dose of medicine.
(dialectal, UK, Suffolk) A weasel.
(attributively, figuratively) in a brief, condensed or compact form
* 1962 , :
(winemaking) The covering — formerly lead or tin, now often plastic — over the cork at the top of the wine bottle.
(chemistry, dated) A small clay saucer for roasting or melting samples of ores, etc.; a scorifier.
A small, shallow evaporating dish, usually of porcelain.
A small cup or shell, often of metal, for a percussion cap, cartridge, etc.
As nouns the difference between pill and capsule
is that pill is a small, usually cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication while capsule is a membranous envelope.As a verb pill
is of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber.pill
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) or (etyl) pille (whence (etyl) pil), probably from (etyl) pilula.Noun
(en noun)- Take two pills every hour in the apyrexia of intermittent fever, until eight are taken.
- Jane went on the pill when she left for college.
- She got pregnant one month after going off the pill .
Getting Off the Hook: Treatment of Drug Addiction and Social Disorders Through Body and Mind:
- Many specialists are requesting that this vitamin be included in all contraceptive pills, as women on the pill have a tendency to be depressed.
- Instead, I saw a woman in her mid-fifties, who was a real pill ; while all the others had managed a decent “So pleased,” or even a plain “Hello,” Ginger just inclined her head, as if she was doing a Queen Mary imitation.
- One sleeve, threadbare and loaded with what my mother called “sweater pills ,” hung halfway to the floor.
- Mr. Fisher contributed to the Sox effort when he threw the pill past second baseman Rath after Felsch hit him a comebacker.
Synonyms
* (small object for swallowing) tabletDerived terms
* bitter pill to swallow * blue pill * chill pill * horse pill * morning-after pill * on the pill * pill beetle * pill bug * pill popper * red pill * sugar pill * pop pillsVerb
(en verb)- During processing, inferior short fibers (which can cause pilling and itching) are removed to enhance the natural softness of the yarn and to improve its wash-and-wear performance.
- Pilling is a skill rarely used by modern pharmacists.
- She pills herself with all sorts of herbal medicines.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)Noun
(en noun)- Some be covered over with crusts, or hard pills , as the locusts.
Etymology 3
From (etyl) . More at (l).capsule
English
Noun
(en noun)- The epidermal cells of the capsule wall of Jubulopsis'', with nodose "trigones" at the angles, are very reminiscent of what one finds in ''Frullania spp.
- If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred.