drill Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a tool with a sharp point and cutting edges for making holes in hard materials (usually rotating rapidly or by repeated blows)
  2. noun similar to the mandrill but smaller and less brightly colored
    Mandrillus leucophaeus.
  3. noun systematic training by multiple repetitions
    recitation; practice session; practice; exercise.
    • practice makes perfect
  4. noun (military) the training of soldiers to march (as in ceremonial parades) or to perform the manual of arms
  5. verb make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool
    bore.
    • don't drill here, there's a gas pipe
    • drill a hole into the wall
    • drill for oil
    • carpenter bees are boring holes into the wall
  6. verb train in the military, e.g., in the use of weapons
  7. verb learn by repetition
    practise; practice; exercise.
    • We drilled French verbs every day
    • Pianists practice scales
  8. verb teach by repetition
  9. verb undergo military training or do military exercises

WordNet

Drill transitive verb
Etymology
D. drillen to bore, drill (soldiers); probably akin to AS. pyrlian, pyrelian, to pierce. See Thrill.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Drilled ; present participle & verbal noun Drilling
Definitions
  1. To pierce or bore with a drill, or a with a drill; to perforate; as, to drill a hole into a rock; to drill a piece of metal.
  2. To train in the military art; to exercise diligently, as soldiers, in military evolutions and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline.
    He [Frederic the Great] drilled his people, as he drilled his grenadiers. Macaulay.
Drill intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To practice an exercise or exercises; to train one's self.
Drill noun
Definitions
  1. An instrument with an edged or pointed end used for making holes in hard substances; strictly, a tool that cuts with its end, by revolving, as in drilling metals, or by a succession of blows, as in drilling stone; also, a drill press.
  2. (Mil.) The act or exercise of training soldiers in the military art, as in the manual of arms, in the execution of evolutions, and the like; hence, diligent and strict instruction and exercise in the rudiments and methods of any business; a kind or method of military exercises; as, infantry drill; battalion drill; artillery drill.
  3. Any exercise, physical or mental, enforced with regularity and by constant repetition; as, a severe drill in Latin grammar.
  4. (Zoöl.) A marine gastropod, of several species, which kills oysters and other bivalves by drilling holes through the shell. The most destructive kind is Urosalpinx cinerea.
Drill transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. Trill to trickle, Trickle, Dribble, and W. rhillio to put in a row, drill.
Definitions
  1. To cause to flow in drills or rills or by trickling; to drain by trickling; as, waters drilled through a sandy stratum. R. Thomson.
  2. To sow, as seeds, by dribbling them along a furrow or in a row, like a trickling rill of water.
  3. To entice; to allure from step; to decoy; -- with on. Obs.
    See drilled him on to five-fifty. Addison.
  4. To cause to slip or waste away by degrees. Obs.
    This accident hath drilled away the whole summer. Swift.
Drill intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To trickle. Obs. or R. Sandys.
  2. To sow in drills.
Drill noun
Definitions
  1. A small trickling stream; a rill. Obs.
    Springs through the pleasant meadows pour their drills. Sandys.
  2. (Agr.) (a) An implement for making holes for sowing seed, and sometimes so formed as to contain seeds and drop them into the hole made. (b) A light furrow or channel made to put seed into sowing. (c) A row of seed sown in a furrow. ✍ Drill is used adjectively, or as the first part of a compound; as, drill barrow or drill-barrow; drill husbandry; drill plow or drill-plow.
Drill noun
Etymology
Cf. Mandrill.
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) A large African baboon (Cynocephalus leucophæus).
Drill noun
Etymology
Usually in pl.
Definitions
  1. (Manuf.) Same as Drilling.

Webster 1913