quill /kwɪl/noun 10verb 5forms 3 noun10 •The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs. •A pen made from a feather.The note was written in a delicate hand with a crow-quill, on primrose-coloured paper, with a lilac seal—the motto "tout à vous;" and the whole with just a faint perfume of jasmine. — 1838 •Any pen.He picked up his quill and wrote a poem. •A sharply pointed, barbed, and easily detached needle-like structure that grows on the skin of a porcupine or hedgehog as a defense against predators. •Something having the form of a quill, such as the fold or plain of a ruff, or (weaving) a spindle, or spool, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.His hair still stood up in punk-rock quills and spikes. — 1990 •The pen of a squid. •A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube. •The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments. •A quill drive, having a hollow shaft with another movable shaft inside it.The motors are attached to the bogie frames so as to be fully springborne, and drive through quills and flexible couplings to the wheels. — 1952 •The tube of a musical instrument.He touched the tender stops of various quills. — 1637 verb5 •(figurative) To write.Nibs never would have quilled a seriph to sheepskin. — 1939 •To pierce with quills. (Usually in the passive voice, as be quilled or get quilled.)Coyotes, bears, and mountain lions which occasionally kill porcupines are sometimes quilled. — 1966 •To form fabric into small, rounded folds. •To decorate with quillwork. •(US, Canada) To subject (a woman who is giving birth) to the practice of quilling (blowing pepper into her nose to induce or hasten labor). formsquilled · quilling · quills
