pilly

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɪli

Etymology 1

From pill +‎ -y. In some cases, pill is a clipping of a longer word.

Adjective

pilly (comparative pillier, superlative pilliest)

1. Covered in pills (particles created by mechanical wear).

   After many washings, my favorite sweater is faded and pilly.

   • 2009, Allegra Goodman, Paradise Park, page 21:

     I gave the superintendent a deposit and I got a room on the third floor with a bed that had sheets and a pilly blanket and a pillow so flat you had to fold it over to rest your head on it.

   • 2015, Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao:

     One was a young woman with stringy brown hair, a pilly black sweater and fabulous boots of parti-coloured suede.

   • 2017, R. J. Noonan, Where the Lost Girls Go:

     So many stuffed animals. Most were pristine—their fur shiny and smooth, barely a nap on them—except for two worn creatures: a round turtle with a pilly knit shell and a brown bear with a round head and a flat body that looked like someone had literally squeezed the stuffing out of it..

   • 2020, Brian Selfon, The Nightworkers:

     Resuming her walk, she takes out her phone. Pulls up pictures of his sketches: a battered shoebox beneath a car, a cat beside the shoebox, one eye open. A pilly sweater, one arm still crossed over a pile of cash.

2. Charcterized by or involving many pills.
   • 1954, The Louisville & Nashville Employes' Magazine - Volume 30, page 62:

     Paiuline Eichstadt spent a week at home womewhat indisposed with Eddie as doctor and nursemaid. A pilly and puny vacation he spent.

Noun

pilly (plural pillies)

1. (informal) Pill.
   • 1981, Vardine Moore, The Pleasure of Poetry with and by Children, page 118:

     Billy Willy is a dilly, He took a pilly And turned silly

   • 2022, Andy Warhol, a: A Novel:

     Let's tak a little pilly here...I, I need it.

2. (informal) A pillhead. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (informal) The lilly-pilly.
   • 2001, Mark Harris, The Amazing Adventure in Tovia, page 59:

     Withdrawing the smaller blade from his belt, Speezer rolled a pilly pod from the tray and sliced it open With his sharp knife.

4. (informal) Pilchard.
   • 2007, Paul Worsteling, Jack Crowley, Fishing Western Port, page 18:

     When buying pillies look for IQF fish.

   • 2011, Gary Brown, How to Catch Australia's Favourite Saltwater Fish, page 62:

     I prefer to have a range of thee different sizes and colours in squid jigs, but you could also try using squid fish spikes and put a pilly on it.

5. (informal) One who rides pillion.
   • 2021, Tracy-lee Adams, The Dunce:

     I attended quite a few other social-group events, made new friends, registered with other motorcycle groups as a pillion, and got out on a few rides. I was really enjoying the riding but sometimes felt frustrated if nobody was available to take a 'pilly' out.

Etymology 2

Noun

pilly (plural pillies)

1. (Scotland) pillow
   • 1873 November 29, “A London Pilgrimage among the Boarding-Houses. V. A Merchant Captain's Roost.”, in Charles Dickens, Jr., editor, All the Year Round, A Weekly Journal (New Series), volume XIpage=110, column 2, London: Chapman & Hall, , published 1874:

     Kattie! There's another coming. Another mattress and a pilly. Where can we put him?

   • 1876, Lewis Strange Wingfield, Slippery ground - Volume 2, page 147:

     She will have to dig a mattress and a pilly from the stair-well.

   • 1914, Lachlan Macbean, Pet Marjorie, page 31:

     Her head it rests upon a pilly And she is not so very silly

See also

• lilly-pilly (almost certainly etymologically unrelated)
• pilly willy (almost certainly etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

• lipyl

Yagara

Noun

pilly

1. Alternative form of pilla.