trilling

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of trill

noun

1. The production of a trill sound.

   “It was pretty close quarters, but I had conversed with her at such length during the nest-building time, that she knew my voice and soon began to answer me in low trillings — trillings that could scarcely be heard — and turn her head to look at me in a friendly way.”

   “During the singing act these wing surfaces are moved rapidly on each other, producing the familiar strident trillings of midsummer.”

2. A compound crystal consisting of three individuals.

   “Diametrically opposed rays of these stellate groups are of the same optical orientation and the twins are, therefore, trillings ( fig. 29 ).”

   “Chrysoberyl is orthorhombic in symmetry. Like many orthorhombic minerals, it readily forms an intergrowth with two other individual crystals to make trillings with six sides or, at least, V-shaped twins.”

   “In the embryonic stage, pseudohexagonal trillings resemble those of the post-embryonic stage (Figure 2D,E), and are 1 to 3 μm in diameter.”

3. (obsolete, rare)One of three offspring born at the same birth; a triplet.

   “Every 67th lying-in woman has twins, every 5333rd has trillings, and only every 150,000th has fourlings.”

   “this breed is prominent for its remarkable fecundity and yield of milk; as a rule, this goat litters once a year and drops 2 kids; occasionally trillings and fourlings.”

   “About twins and trillings.”

name

1. A surname.