rill

noun

1. A very small brook; a streamlet; a creek, rivulet.

   “[N]or yet beside the rill / Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he”

   “So twice five miles of fertile ground / With walls and towers were girdled round: / And here were gardens bright with sinuous rills, / Where blossom'd many an incense-bearing tree; / And here were forests ancient as the hills, / And folding sunny spots of greenery.”

   “The secret of success lies never in the amount of money, but in the relation of income to outgo; as if, after expense has been fixed at a certain point, then new and steady rills of income, though never so small, being added, wealth begins.”

   “Sago trees here cover the mountain side, instead of growing as usual in low swamps; but a closer examination shows that they grow in swampy patches, which have formed among the loose rocks that cover the ground, and which are kept constantly full of moisture by the rains, and by the abundance of rills which trickle down among them.”

   “"Most of them don't wash. Those who do usually plunge their head into some brook or rill, if there happens to be one about."”

2. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of rille.

verb

1. To trickle, pour, or run like a small stream.

   “And fainter, finer, trickle far To where the listening uplands are; To pause—then from his gurgling bill Let the warbled sweetness rill, And down the welkin, gushing free, Hark the molten melody;”

   “Alladad Khan was panting hard, soaked in sweat, and his rolled-up sleeve was all blood, blood rilling down his arm.”