Definition Definition

drill - Meaning and Examples

Meaning of 'drill' (Webster Dictionary)

1 . Drill [ n.]
- An instrument with an edged or pointed end used for making holes in hard substances; strictly, a tool that cuts with its end, by revolving, as in drilling metals, or by a succession of blows, as in drilling stone; also, a drill press.
- The act or exercise of training soldiers in the military art, as in the manual of arms, in the execution of evolutions, and the like; hence, diligent and strict instruction and exercise in the rudiments and methods of any business; a kind or method of military exercises; as, infantry drill; battalion drill; artillery drill.
- Any exercise, physical or mental, enforced with regularity and by constant repetition; as, a severe drill in Latin grammar.
- A marine gastropod, of several species, which kills oysters and other bivalves by drilling holes through the shell. The most destructive kind is Urosalpinx cinerea.
- A small trickling stream; a rill.
- An implement for making holes for sowing seed, and sometimes so formed as to contain seeds and drop them into the hole made.
- A light furrow or channel made to put seed into sowing.
- A row of seed sown in a furrow.
- A large African baboon (Cynocephalus leucophaeus).
- Same as Drilling.
2 . Drill [ v. i.]
- To practice an exercise or exercises; to train one's self.
- To trickle.
- To sow in drills.
3 . Drill [ v. t.]
- To pierce or bore with a drill, or a with a drill; to perforate; as, to drill a hole into a rock; to drill a piece of metal.
- To train in the military art; to exercise diligently, as soldiers, in military evolutions and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline.
- To cause to flow in drills or rills or by trickling; to drain by trickling; as, waters drilled through a sandy stratum.
- To sow, as seeds, by dribbling them along a furrow or in a row, like a trickling rill of water.
- To entice; to allure from step; to decoy; -- with on.
- To cause to slip or waste away by degrees.

Meaning of 'drill' (Princeton's WordNet)

1 . drill [ n]
Meaning (1):
- systematic training by multiple repetitions
Example in sentence:
  • practice makes perfect
2 . drill [ v]
Meaning (2):
- make a hole, especially with a pointed power or hand tool
Example in sentence:
  • carpenter bees are boring holes into the wall;
  • don't drill here, there's a gas pipe;
  • drill a hole into the wall;
  • drill for oil
Meaning (3):
- learn by repetition
Example in sentence:
  • Pianists practice scales;
  • We drilled French verbs every day