First recorded in 1475–85; of uncertain origin
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Sure, the mackerel paté was mesmerising, the pickled oyster piquant and the brill terrine as dazzling as its name suggests.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 25, 2019
“I like it. I think it’s brill: all the parades and the pomp and ceremony. And I think the Queen’s amazing.”
From The Guardian ● May 8, 2018
Here, the meat inside is juicy from a wallow in sa-cha sauce, with its briny payload of dried shrimp and ground brill.
From New York Times ● Jan. 25, 2018
I was glad to learn that TS Eliot is "brill".
From The Guardian ● Mar. 30, 2013
“It's so futuristic. Gary Numan's got a friend named 'Five'! Is that brill or what?”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
“They are looking to get funding from as many different places as they can, so they can thrive,” Brill said.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 5, 2026
Unlike his Brill Building peer Carole King — he wrote “Oh! Carol,” his first big hit, about her — Sedaka wasn’t able to refashion himself as a hip singer-songwriter.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 27, 2026
Matt Brill, a senior portfolio manager and head of North American investment-grade credit at Invesco, said his team favors short-term bonds on a belief that coming economic data will push the Fed to continue cutting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 16, 2025
There was a leading role as Edward "Brill" Lyle, the computer genius in the 1998 film, Enemy of the State, where he starred alongside Will Smith in a frightening tale of government surveillance.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2025
For the first time I noticed it wasn’t Brill, it was the second-string quarterback.
From "Crash" by Jerry Spinelli
Dories, smelts, pike, perch, holibets, brills, carp, salmon trout, barbel, gudgeons, tench, shellfish.—Vegetables.
From The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families by Eaton, Mary, fl. 1823-1849
Once through the gap, experienced men gather the logs, as they are floated downward by the current, into brills.
From Fifty Years In The Northwest With An Introduction And Appendix Containing Reminiscences, Incidents And Notes by Folsom, William Henry Carman
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.
