thrill

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
9
Words With Friends
10
Letters
6
Pronunciation
/θɹɪl/
See all 6 pronunciations
/θɹɪl/ · [θɾ̪̊ɪɫ] (US) · [θɹ̥ɪɫ] (US) · [θɾ̪̊ɪl] · [t̪ɾ̪̊ɪl] · /fɹɪl/

Definition of thrill

9 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (ergative)To suddenly excite someone, or to give someone great pleasure; to (figuratively) electrify; to experience such a sensation.
    “The cruel word her tender heart so thrilled, / That sudden cold did run through every vein.”
    “1854, Matthew Arnold, Preface to Poems vivid and picturesque turns of expression […] which thrill the reader with a sudden delight”
    “One love / That has possessed me; / One love / Thrilling me through”
See all 9 definitions

verb

  1. (ergative)To suddenly excite someone, or to give someone great pleasure; to (figuratively) electrify; to experience such a sensation.
    “The cruel word her tender heart so thrilled, / That sudden cold did run through every vein.”
    “1854, Matthew Arnold, Preface to Poems vivid and picturesque turns of expression […] which thrill the reader with a sudden delight”
    “One love / That has possessed me; / One love / Thrilling me through”
  2. (ergative)To (cause something to) tremble or quiver.
  3. (obsolete)To perforate by a pointed instrument; to bore; to transfix; to drill.
    “he perced through his chaufed chest / With thrilling point of deadly yron brand”
  4. (obsolete)To hurl; to throw; to cast.
    “I'd thrill my jauelin at the Grecian moysture”
  5. To drill and thread in one operation, using a tool bit that cuts the hole and the threads in one series of computer-controlled movements.

noun

  1. A trembling or quivering, especially one caused by emotion; a frisson.
    “She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.”
  2. (figuratively)A cause of sudden excitement; a kick.
    “The thrill is gone / Gone, gone for me / I still live on, lonely though I'll be”
  3. A slight quivering of the heart that accompanies a cardiac murmur.
  4. A breathing place or hole; a nostril, as of a bird.

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

From Old English þȳrlian (“to pierce”), derived from þȳrel (“hole”) (archaic English thirl). Doublet of thirl (verb).

Hooks

1 extension · 1 back

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