hill
noun
a natural elevation of the earth's surface, smaller than a mountain.
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Hilal.
hill
1 American
[hil]
/ hɪl /
noun
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hills
plural
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a natural elevation of the earth's surface, smaller than a mountain.
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an incline, especially in a road.
This old jalopy won't make it up the next hill.
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an artificial heap, pile, or mound.
a hill made by ants.
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a small mound of earth raised about a cultivated plant or a cluster of such plants.
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the plant or plants so surrounded.
a hill of potatoes.
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Baseball. mound.
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the Hill. Capitol Hill.
verb (used with object)
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hills,
present (3rd person singular)
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hilled,
past participle, past
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hilling
present participle
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to surround with hills.
to hill potatoes.
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to form into a hill or heap.
idioms
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go over the hill,
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to break out of prison.
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to absent oneself without leave from one's military unit.
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to leave suddenly or mysteriously.
Rumor has it that her husband has gone over the hill.
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over the hill,
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relatively advanced in age.
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past one's prime.
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Hill
2
American
[hil]
/ hɪl /
noun
-
Ambrose Powell 1825–65, Confederate general in the U.S. Civil War.
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Archibald Vivian 1886–1977, English physiologist: Nobel Prize in Medicine 1922.
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James Jerome, 1838–1916, U.S. railroad builder and financier, born in Canada.
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Joe, 1879–1915, U.S. labor organizer and songwriter, born in Sweden.
hill
1
British
/ hɪl /
noun
-
-
a conspicuous and often rounded natural elevation of the earth's surface, less high or craggy than a mountain
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( in combination )
a hillside
a hilltop
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-
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a heap or mound made by a person or animal
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( in combination )
a dunghill
-
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an incline; slope
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informal beyond one's prime
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slang military absent without leave or deserting
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strenuously and persistently
verb
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to form into a hill or mound
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to cover or surround with a mound or heap of earth
Hill
2
British
/ hɪl /
noun
-
Archibald Vivian. 1886–1977, British biochemist, noted for his research into heat loss in muscle contraction: shared the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine (1922)
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Damon Graham Devereux, son of Graham Hill. born 1960, British motor-racing driver; Formula One world champion (1996)
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David Octavius 1802–70, Scottish painter and portrait photographer, noted esp for his collaboration with the chemist Robert Adamson (1821–48)
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Sir Geoffrey ( William ). born 1932, British poet: his books include King Log (1968), Mercian Hymns (1971), The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy (1983), and The Orchards of Syon (2002)
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Graham. 1929–75, British motor-racing driver: world champion (1962, 1968)
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Octavia. 1838–1912, British housing reformer; a founder of the National Trust
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Sir Rowland. 1795–1879, British originator of the penny postage
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Susan ( Elizabeth ). born 1942, British novelist and writer of short stories: her books include I'm the King of the Castle (1970) The Woman in Black (1983), and Felix Derby (2002)
hill
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hillsimple
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hillssimple
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have hilledperfect
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has hilledperfect
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am hillingprogressive
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are hillingprogressive
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is hillingprogressive
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have been hillingperfect progressive
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has been hillingperfect progressive
Past
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hilledsimple
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had hilledperfect
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was hillingprogressive
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were hillingprogressive
-
had been hillingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hill
before 1000; Middle English; Old English hyll; cognate with Middle Dutch hille, Latin collis hill; compare Latin culmen top, peak ( see column, culminate), celsus lofty, very high, Gothic hallus rock, Lithuanian kálnas mountain, Greek kolōnós hill, kolophṓn summit ( see colophon)
Explanation
A hill is a high ridge or mound of land, not as tall as a mountain. A house on a hill has a great view of the surrounding countryside, and very little chance of being flooded. You can hike or drive up a hill — a gentle upward slope, in either case. An accidental or deliberate mound of stuff is another kind of hill, like a hill of snow in your yard, or a hill of trash at the dump. What's considered a hill in mountainous India — a height of up to 10,000 feet — is absolutely a mountain in Great Britain, where a hill is defined as an elevation of less than 2,000 feet.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It comes complete with a VIP viewing area that could house the King of Spain and his family and sits, appropriately, like a castle on top of the hill.
From BBC ● Sep. 10, 2026
Workers swarmed the mound of metal like ants on a hill.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
He encouraged his followers to fill 5-gallon jugs and join him and Joey, a triathlete, for military-style drills on the sand, in the water and up the stairs and adjacent hill.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
"One by one, we also climbed out through the driver's side," then scrambled up a hill, she said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026
At the end of the lake there was a large hill.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
That relationship takes physical form inside the Melrose Hill shop, unfolding through a two-part imagined landscape that evokes an alien presence settling into the familiarity of a suburban setting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The chain got its start in Vancouver, British Columbia, when Brian Hill, a Canadian retail scion, opened the first boutique in 1984 in a shopping center there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
If he had wanted, Carrick could have played the 'one of those things' cards about the result at the Hill Dickinson stadium.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
Cecily Craig, 71, lives a short walk away from her centenarian widowed mother at Park Pointe Village in Rock Hill, S.C., each in their own apartment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
Dismay streaked up Purgatory Hill, his ears flat back against his head, the whites of his eyes wild and terrified.
From Each Little Bird That Sings by Deborah Wiles
Fall is mellower, even if the hills might be a little browner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
It’s big, too, nearly 10 miles long, and peaky, with some squat concrete buildings up at the crest of one of the hills, and a single telegraph pole.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
Gales are expected for exposed coasts and hills in western Scotland.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
“When I look at it, I see the hills outside of Wellington or people with moko tattoos—things that just make me instantly think of home.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026
Letting the team do as they wish, I simply stand on the back or push up the hills and do not care about winning or losing—only the dance counts.
From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen
There was little work for Paul to do in the village; but he kept their own garden in good trim—the onion-bed clear of weeds, and the potatoes well hilled.
From Our Young Folks—Vol. I, No. II, February 1865 An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls by Various
Holes were then to be dug at least 8 feet apart, one foot square, and one foot deep, and in each two or three roots planted and well hilled up.
From A Short History of English Agriculture by W. H. R. (William Henry Ricketts) Curtler
When the plants were about knee high they were "hilled up," as the Indian had done his corn, or the Englishman his cabbage, and considered "laid by."
From Tobacco in Colonial Virginia "The Sovereign Remedy" by G. Melvin Herndon
Phoenix like symbol of the departed soul, he soars into the sky, and the seven hilled city throbs with pride, reverberating the shouts of her people.
From The Destiny of the Soul A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life by William Rounseville Alger
I think I hilled those spuds, too, with furrows—or a crop of Indian corn I put in later on.
From Joe Wilson and His Mates by Henry Lawson
Prevailing industry practices often involve the concentrated application of fertilizers during the planting or hilling phases, particularly in Atlantic Canada.
From Salon ● Nov. 28, 2023
At the usual first hilling time, Dowding pulls a little nearby compost around each plant in a minimound, later adding more from the heap as the plants need hilling again.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 29, 2023
He mentions that the Potawatomi word for “hill” is a verb: “Hills are always in the process of hilling, they are actively being hills.”
From New York Times ● May 27, 2020
On an afternoon in March, Loïc Gouzer, a specialist in contemporary art at Christie’s New York, attended a hilling session to survey several works that had been secured for an upcoming auction.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 27, 2016
Where, there by the berries, With cheeks like cherries, And locks with which the warm wind merries, Brown girls are hilling the hay, All day!
From Undertones by Madison J. Cawein
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
