Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A well-defined natural elevation smaller than a mountain.
  • noun A small heap, pile, or mound.
  • noun A mound of earth piled around and over a plant.
  • noun A plant thus covered.
  • noun An incline, especially of a road; a slope.
  • noun Capitol Hill. Often used with the.
  • noun The US Congress. Often used with the.
  • transitive verb To form into a hill, pile, or heap.
  • transitive verb To cover (a plant) with a mound of soil.
  • idiom (over the hill) Past one's prime.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To form small hills or heaps of earth around; form into hills or heaps: as, to hill corn; to hill the ground.
  • To heap; accumulate.
  • To form into a heap; gather.
  • To cover.
  • To pour out.
  • noun A conspicuous natural elevation of the earth's surface; a natural eminence of indefinite height, usually rounded or conical.
  • noun A heap; a hillock; a pile: as, a dunghill; an ant-hill; a mole-hill.
  • noun A little mound raised about a cluster of cultivated plants: as, a hill of maize or potatoes.
  • noun In heraldry, the representation of a hill, usually green when only one is used.
  • To assemble on rising ground.
  • noun The cluster of plants in a hill.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A natural elevation of land, or a mass of earth rising above the common level of the surrounding land; an eminence less than a mountain.
  • noun The earth raised about the roots of a plant or cluster of plants. [U. S.] See Hill, v. t.
  • noun United States A single cluster or group of plants growing close together, and having the earth heaped up about them.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a common ant (Formica rufa), of Europe and America, which makes mounds or ant-hills over its nests.
  • noun (Zoöl.) one of several species of birds of India, of the genus Gracula, and allied to the starlings. They are easily taught to speak many words. [Written also hill mynah.] See Myna.
  • noun (Zoöl.) a partridge of the genus Aborophila, of which numerous species in habit Southern Asia and the East Indies.
  • noun (Zoöl.) one of numerous species of small Asiatic singing birds of the family Leiotrichidæ. Many are beautifully colored.
  • transitive verb To surround with earth; to heap or draw earth around or upon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An elevated location smaller than a mountain.
  • noun A sloping road.
  • noun A heap of earth surrounding a plant.
  • noun baseball The pitcher’s mound.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun risque English comedian (1925-1992)
  • noun a local and well-defined elevation of the land
  • noun (baseball) the slight elevation on which the pitcher stands
  • noun United States railroad tycoon (1838-1916)
  • verb form into a hill
  • noun structure consisting of an artificial heap or bank usually of earth or stones

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English hil, from Old English hyll; see kel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English hyll ("hill"), from Proto-Germanic *hulliz (“stone, rock”), from Proto-Indo-European *kolən-, *koləm- (“top, hill, rock”). Cognate with Middle Dutch hille, hulle ("hill"), Low German hull ("hill"), Icelandic hóll ("hill"), Latin collis ("hill"), Lithuanian kalnas, Albanian kallumë ("big pile, tall heap"), Old English holm ("rising land, island"). More at holm.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hill.

Examples

  • Poster2: * Runs up the hill, tosses a ball past Poster1 and watches Poster1 run down the hill* then he/she states "My hill!"

    Wrong Planet Asperger / Autism Forums 2010

  • THOUSANDS of sheep, soft-footed, black-nosed sheep—one by one going up the hill and over the fence—one by one four-footed pattering up and over—one by one wiggling their stub tails as they take the short jump and go over—one by one silently unless for the multitudinous drumming of their hoofs as they move on and go over—thousands and thousands of them in the grey haze of evening just after sundown—one by one slanting in a long line to pass over the hill—

    Sheep 1916

  • Finding the path up the hill is the only difficult point on the hike.

    Peace and beauty - roaming the hills around Morelia 2008

  • Finding the path up the hill is the only difficult point on the hike.

    Peace and beauty - roaming the hills around Morelia 2008

  • Also with Dave you would listen just to see how bad and over the hill is actually is.

    David Lee Roth: Amtrak FM « BuzzMachine 2006

  • JERAS: I'm looking at a map as we speak trying to find it, but I'm not sure how far away it is from San Antonio proper, but you know, if you get up to the north and west of the San Antonio area, you get into what they call the hill country, and so, that's in higher elevation.

    CNN Transcript Jul 21, 2007 2007

  • They would miss the Fiesta of the Virgen de Guadalupe, where the church high on the hill is the centrepiece.

    San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas 2004

  • They would miss the Fiesta of the Virgen de Guadalupe, where the church high on the hill is the centrepiece.

    San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas 2004

  • Down the hill is a nonpareil collection of Eskimo, Tlingit, Haida, and other native art at the Alaska

    Scaling Alaska's Heights 1997

  • On the crest of the hill is the rye, cut high on its blooming stem:

    Songs of Ukraina, With Ruthenian Poems 1916

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

    July 19, 2008