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Showing results for rill. Search instead for rilling.
Synonyms

rill

1 American  
[ril] / rɪl /

noun

  1. a small rivulet or brook.


rill 2 American  
[ril] / rɪl /
Or rille

noun

Astronomy.
  1. any of certain long, narrow, straight or sinuous trenches or valleys observed on the surface of the moon.


rill British  
/ rɪl /

noun

  1. a brook or stream; rivulet

  2. a small channel or gulley, such as one formed during soil erosion

  3. Also: rille. one of many winding cracks on the moon

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of rill1

1530–40; < Dutch or Low German; compare Frisian ril

Origin of rill2

1885–90; < German Rille; see rill 1


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:

My filly’s whinny, timid trill: I’m sitting by this icy rill, In wintry, frigid wild?

From Washington Post ● Nov. 10, 2022

Water, and lack of water, is a recurring theme, represented by two ponds connected by a dry rill.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2020

It’s hard to ascribe majesty to such a dirty, ruin-crowded waterway, a rill so narrow it can be easily spanned by a well-thrown baseball.

From Salon ● Feb. 24, 2013

Army Air Transport Command, has grown to a rill: almost 25,000 tons a month, as compared with barely half that in the good old days of the bad old Burma Road.

From Time Magazine Archive

I looked around for the rill, but couldn’t see it.

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

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