refill
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
refills,
present (3rd person singular)
-
refilled,
past participle, past
-
refilling
present participle
noun
-
refills
plural
verb
noun
-
a replacement for a consumable substance in a permanent container
-
a second or subsequent filling
a refill at the petrol station
-
informal another drink to replace one already drunk
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
refillsimple
-
refillssimple
-
have refilledperfect
-
has refilledperfect
-
am refillingprogressive
-
are refillingprogressive
-
is refillingprogressive
-
have been refillingperfect progressive
-
has been refillingperfect progressive
Past
-
refilledsimple
-
had refilledperfect
-
was refillingprogressive
-
were refillingprogressive
-
had been refillingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of refill
Explanation
To refill is to fill something again, the way you refill your motorcycle's gas tank or refill your cat's water bowl when you notice it's almost empty. You can also refill a prescription, by going to the pharmacy and getting another month's worth of medication. The bottle of pills itself can also be called a refill. People commonly use this word as a noun for the act of filling up, too: "Hey, grab that waiter and ask for a refill on the Cokes!"
Vocabulary lists containing refill
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:
About 15 minutes later, after sensing that it is running low on spray – water for today's purposes – the aircraft lands itself for a manual refill and demonstration battery swap.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
Life insurance can refill coffers when all else is gone and can possibly save a family from losing a house.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
After rinsing the pipe, workers will refill it with clean water, refill the hole and repave the street.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
Europe is past the midpoint of the refill season—which runs from April 1 to Nov. 1—leaving roughly three and a half months to rebuild inventories.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
“Must I remind my lord, this trouble is not of my doing? And not all of us have had die opportunity to refill our coffers with the plunder of Maidenpool and Dragonstone.”
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
When its competitors often price hand-soap refills at $10.99 or $11.99, Clean Cult—which packages its cleaners in milk-carton-like containers to avoid using plastic—has intentionally kept some of its products at $7.99.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
The team defined discontinuation as a gap of more than 60 days between prescription refills.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 16, 2026
You will probably need to pay a plumber to ensure the cistern refills properly, but whether that money should go to the same company depends largely on how they respond now.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 10, 2026
Photos posted on social media show concession stand signs stating that free refills were available only on the day of purchase.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2026
I lunch at Wendy’s, where $4.99 gets you unlimited refills at the Mexican part of the Super-bar, a comforting surfeit of refried beans and cheese sauce.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
Under the legislation, shops and online retailers are not permitted to sell the devices without a rechargeable battery, replaceable coil and capacity to be refilled.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
But problems arose shortly after the pool was refilled, with algae quickly regrowing and the new liner peeling in multiple places.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
The equipment enables the A400M to carry more than 5,000 gallons of water, all of which can be released in a single gravity-drop maneuver and refilled in about 10 minutes back on the ground.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Workers have refilled the pipe with water and are now working to repressurize it, officials said Sunday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2026
He coughed and then elaborately refilled and lit his pipe.
From "Jacob Have I Loved" by Katherine Paterson
"We fear today," said Jeremy Presi, a local business owner volunteering to help firefighters at a water refilling station.
From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026
One of the shorter-term challenges to refilling the coffers is the transit time for ocean-faring vessels to sail from the Middle East to customers around the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
The cistern on my toilet has been constantly refilling and making a hissing noise, so I asked a plumbing company to send someone over.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 10, 2026
The cost of that fluctuates more directly in response to the oil price, so the latest global uncertainty has pushed up bills for those households refilling their tanks.
From BBC ● May 5, 2026
He looked quite at a loss for what to say, and resorted to refilling their mugs.
From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling
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.
