till

¹ American  

[til] / tɪl /

preposition

1. up to the time of; until.

   to fight till death.

2. before (used in negative constructions).

   He did not come till today.

3. near or at a specified time.

   till evening.

4. Chiefly Midland, Southern, and Western U.S. before; to.

   It's ten till four on my watch.

5. Scot. and North England.

   1. to.

   2. unto.

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conjunction

1. to the time that or when; until.

2. before (used in negative constructions).

till ² American  

[til] / tɪl /

verb (used with object)

1. to labor, as by plowing or harrowing, upon (land) for the raising of crops; cultivate.

2. to plow.

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verb (used without object)

1. to cultivate the soil.

till ³ American  

[til] / tɪl /

noun

1. a drawer, box, or the like, as in a shop or bank, in which money is kept.

2. a drawer, tray, or the like, as in a cabinet or chest, for keeping valuables.

3. an arrangement of drawers or pigeonholes, as on a desk top.

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till ⁴ American  

[til] / tɪl /

noun

1. Geology. glacial drift consisting of an unassorted mixture of clay, sand, gravel, and boulders.

2. a stiff clay.

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till ¹ British  

/ tɪl /

noun

1. an unstratified glacial deposit consisting of rock fragments of various sizes. The most common is boulder clay

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till ² British  

/ tɪl /

conjunction

1. Also (not standard): 'til.  short for until

2. to; towards

3. dialect in order that

   come here till I tell you

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till ³ British  

/ tɪl /

verb

1. to cultivate and work (land) for the raising of crops

2. another word for plough

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till ⁴ British  

/ tɪl /

noun

1. a box, case, or drawer into which the money taken from customers is put, now usually part of a cash register

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till Scientific  

/ tĭl /

1. An unstratified, unconsolidated mass of boulders, pebbles, sand, and mud deposited by the movement or melting of a glacier. The size and shape of the sediments that constitute till vary widely.

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till Idioms  

1. In addition to the subsequent idioms beginning with till, also see hand in the till; until.

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Usage

Till is a variant of until that is acceptable at all levels of language. Until is, however, often preferred at the beginning of a sentence in formal writing: until his behaviour improves, he cannot become a member

Commonly Confused

Till1 and until are both old in the language and are interchangeable as both prepositions and conjunctions: It rained till (or until ) nearly midnight. The savannah remained brown and lifeless until (or till ) the rains began. Till is not a shortened form of until and is not spelled 'till. 'Til is usually considered a spelling error, though widely used in advertising: Open 'til ten.

Other Word Forms

• mistilled adjective
• tillable adjective
• tiller noun
• untilled adjective
• untilling adjective
• well-tilled adjective

Etymology

Origin of till¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English (north) til “to,” from Old Norse til “to,” akin to Old English till “station, fixed point, standing-place” German Ziel “goal”

Origin of till²

First recorded before 900; Middle English tilen, Old English tilian “to strive after, get, till”; cognate with Dutch telen “to breed, cultivate,” German zielen “to aim at”

Origin of till³

First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English tylle, noun use of tylle “to draw, attract,” Old English -tyllan (in fortyllan “to seduce”); akin to Latin dolus “trick,” Greek dólos “bait (for fish); any cunning contrivance; treachery”

Origin of till⁴

First recorded in 1665–75; origin uncertain

Example Sentences

A spokesperson for 200 Degrees said due to an "administrative error", the gift card number - rather than the gift card value - was entered into the wrong part of the till.

From BBC

But when the 48-year-old arrived at the till his card would not work.

From BBC

They fermented inside him till they emerged as poetic images and metaphors—“nature, red in tooth and claw.”

From The Wall Street Journal

"Under normal circumstances, organisations would simply switch off the feature and wait till governance caught up," Henein said.

From BBC

Having told his story up till now, Riley has big plans for what’s next.

From Los Angeles Times