Pill vs Pall - What's the difference?

In obsolete terms the difference between pill and pall

is that pill is to pillage; to despoil or impoverish while pall is nausea.

As nouns the difference between pill and pall

is that pill is a small, usually cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication while pall is fine cloth, especially purple cloth used for robes.

As verbs the difference between pill and pall

is that pill is of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber while pall is to cloak.

pill

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) or (etyl) pille (whence (etyl) pil), probably from (etyl) pilula.

Noun

(en noun)

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]

Take two pills every hour in the apyrexia of intermittent fever, until eight are taken.

(senseid) Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill.

Jane went on the pill when she left for college.

She got pregnant one month after going off the pill .

* 1986 , Jurriaan Plesman, 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.

(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]

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.

(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]

One sleeve, threadbare and loaded with what my mother called “sweater pills ,” hung halfway to the floor.

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]

Mr. Fisher contributed to the Sox effort when he threw the pill past second baseman Rath after Felsch hit him a comebacker.

(firearms) (informal) a bullet (projectile)

Synonyms

* (small object for swallowing) tablet

Derived 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 pills

Verb

(en verb)

(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]

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.

To form into the shape of a pill.

Pilling is a skill rarely used by modern pharmacists.

To medicate with pills.

She pills herself with all sorts of herbal medicines.

Etymology 2

From (etyl) .

Verb

(en verb)

(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)

Noun

(en noun)

The peel or skin.

* Holland

Some be covered over with crusts, or hard pills , as the locusts.

Etymology 3

From (etyl) . More at (l).

Noun

(en noun)

An inlet on the coast; a small tidal pool or bay.

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pall

English

Etymology 1

(etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)

(archaic) Fine cloth, especially purple cloth used for robes.

(Christianity) A cloth used for various purposes on the altar in a church.

(Christianity) A piece of cardboard, covered with linen and embroidered on one side, used to cover the chalice.

(Christianity) A pallium (woollen vestment in Roman Catholicism).

* Fuller

About this time Pope Gregory sent two archbishop's palls into England, — the one for London, the other for York.

(heraldiccharge) A figure resembling the Roman Catholic pallium, or pall, and having the form of the letter Y.

A heavy canvas, especially one laid over a coffin or tomb.

* 1942 , Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon , Canongate (2006), page 150:

Thirty years or so later, a woman was put to death for stealing the purple pall from his sarcophagus, a strange, crazy crime,

An outer garment; a cloak or mantle.

* Shakespeare

His lion's skin changed to a pall of gold.

(obsolete) nausea

(Shaftesbury)

(senseid) A feeling of gloom.

A pall came over the crowd when the fourth goal was scored.

The early election results cast a pall over what was supposed to be a celebration.

Derived terms

* cast a pall * pallbearer * tarpaulin

Synonyms

* (heraldry) pairle

Verb

(en verb)

To cloak.

(Shakespeare)

Lady Macbeth: 'Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell' (Macbeth Act I Scene v lines 48–9).

Etymology 2

from appall. Possibly influenced by the figurative meaning of the unrelated noun.

Verb

(en verb)

To make vapid or insipid; to make lifeless or spiritless; to dull; to weaken.

* Atterbury

Reason and reflection pall all his enjoyments.

To become vapid, tasteless, dull, or insipid; to lose strength, life, spirit, or taste.

The liquor palls .

* Addison

Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, / Fades in the eye, and palls upon the sense.

* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter VI

We are all becoming accustomed to adventure. It is beginning to pall on us. We suffered no casualties and there was no illness.

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