v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Tilled p. pr. & vb. n. Tilling. ] [ OE. tilen, tilien, AS. tilian, teolian, to aim, strive for, till; akin to OS. tilian to get, D. telen to propagate, G. zielen to aim, ziel an end, object, and perhaps also to E. tide, time, from the idea of something fixed or definite. Cf. Teal, Till, prep.. ] 1. To plow and prepare for seed, and to sow, dress, raise crops from, etc., to cultivate; as, to till the earth, a field, a farm. [ 1913 Webster ]

No field nolde [ would not ] tilye. P. Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. Gen. iii. 23. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To prepare; to get. [ Obs. ] W. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

prep. [ OE. til, Icel. til; akin to Dan. til, Sw. till, OFries. til, also to AS. til good, excellent, G. ziel end, limit, object, OHG. zil, Goth. tils, gatils, fit, convenient, and E. till to cultivate. See Till, v. t. ] To; unto; up to; as far as; until; -- now used only in respect to time, but formerly, also, of place, degree, etc., and still so used in Scotland and in parts of England and Ireland; as, I worked till four o'clock; I will wait till next week. [ 1913 Webster ]

He . . . came till an house. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

Women, up till this
Cramped under worse than South-sea-isle taboo. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Similar sentiments will recur to every one familiar with his writings -- all through them till the very end. Prof. Wilson. [ 1913 Webster ]

Till now, to the present time. --
Till then, to that time. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

conj. As far as; up to the place or degree that; especially, up to the time that; that is, to the time specified in the sentence or clause following; until. [ 1913 Webster ]

And said unto them, Occupy till I come. Luke xix. 13. [ 1913 Webster ]

Mediate so long till you make some act of prayer to God. Jer. Taylor. [ 1913 Webster ]

There was no outbreak till the regiment arrived. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ This use may be explained by supposing an ellipsis of when, or the time when, the proper conjunction or conjunctive adverb begin when. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To cultivate land. Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Properly, a drawer, from OE. tillen to draw. See Tiller the lever of a rudder. ] A drawer. Specifically: (a) A tray or drawer in a chest. (b) A money drawer in a shop or store. [ 1913 Webster ]

Till alarm, a device for sounding an alarm when a money drawer is opened or tampered with. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. (Geol.) A deposit of clay, sand, and gravel, without lamination, formed in a glacier valley by means of the waters derived from the melting glaciers; -- sometimes applied to alluvium of an upper river terrace, when not laminated, and appearing as if formed in the same manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A kind of coarse, obdurate land. Loudon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Abbrev. from lentil. ] A vetch; a tare. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Capable of being tilled; fit for the plow; arable. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The operation, practice, or art of tilling or preparing land for seed, and keeping the ground in a proper state for the growth of crops. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A place tilled or cultivated; cultivated land. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Cultivation; culture; husbandry; farming; agriculture. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., after Prof. Tillands, of Abo, in Finland. ] (Bot.) An immense genus of epiphytic bromeliaceous plants confined to tropical and subtropical America. They usually bear a rosette of narrow overlapping basal leaves, which often hold a considerable quantity of water. The spicate or paniculate flowers have free perianth segments, and are often subtended by colored bracts. Also, a plant of this genus. Tillandsia usneoides, called Spanish moss, long moss, black moss, and Florida moss, has a very slender pendulous branching stem, and forms great hanging tufts on the branches of trees in the Southeastern United States and south to Argentina. It is often used for stuffing mattresses [ 1913 Webster + Webster 1913 Suppl. ]