释义 |
▪ I. drill, n.1|drɪl| Also 5 drylle, 7 dril, drille. [In sense 2, goes with drill v.2; sense 1 offers difficulties, and is not certainly the same word.] †1. A small draught (of liquid). Obs. rare.
c1440Promp. Parv. 132/1 Drylle, or lytylle drafte of drynke, haustillus. 2. A (? trickling) rivulet or small stream; a rill.
1641G. Sandys Paraphr. Song Sol. iv. ii, Those living Springs..Whose Drils our plants with moisture feed. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. x, Meadow-land..which had two or three..drills of fresh water in it. 1751R. Paltock P. Wilkins xxxiv. (1883) 93/1 Coming to my drill's mouth, I fixed my implements for a draft there. 1819G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 313 The drills in marshes should be examined. ▪ II. drill, n.2|drɪl| Also 7 dril. [In sense 1 prob. immed. a. Du. dril, drille, in same sense (in Kilian 1599, and prob. in MDu.), f. drillen: see drill v.3; in other senses app. from the vb. in Eng.] I. Mechanical and technical senses. 1. An instrument for drilling or boring; applied to contrivances of many kinds for boring holes in metal, stone, and other hard substances, from a pointed steel tool to an elaborate drilling machine.
1611Cotgr., Trappan, a Stone-cutters Drill, the toole wherewith he bores little holes in marble, &c. 1688R. Holme Armoury iii. 322/1 The Drill is a shaft or long Pin of Iron with a Steel point. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 6 Drills are used for the making such Holes as Punches will not conveniently serve for. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 185 The drill is a revolving cutter..to form circular holes in iron or other material. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss. s.v., The ordinary miner's drill is a bar of steel, with a chisel-shaped end. 2. A shell-fish which is destructive to oyster-beds by boring into the shells of young oysters; a borer.
1886Sci. Amer. Suppl. XXII. 8868 The little littorinas, the destructive ‘drill’ which works its way into the shell of the young oysters. 3. Manner or style of drilling, or in which a hole is drilled.
1849Longfellow Kavanagh 22 He..said the drill of the [needle's] eye was superior to any other. II. Military and derived senses. 4. The action or method of instructing in military evolutions; military exercise or training; with a and pl. an exercise of this nature.
a1637B. Jonson Underwoods lxii. 29 He that but saw thy curious captain's drill, Would think no more of Vlushing, or the Brill. 1809Wellington 24 June in Gurw. Desp. IV. 463, I propose to give the best drilled of the seven battalions coming to Portugal, in order to assist in your drills. 1859Jephson Brittany ii. 15 A company of soldiers..at drill. 5. One who drills (others); a drill-master.
1814Scott Wav. lxii, Her husband was my sergeant-major..and got on by being a good drill. 1894D. C. Murray Making of Novelist 57 The various drills laboured at him like galley-slaves. 6. fig. a. Rigorous training or discipline; exact routine; strict methodical instruction.
1815W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 51 Thy worn quill Too often hath needed Apollo's sharp drill. 1875Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Eloquence Wks. (Bohn) III. 194 This wise mixture of good drill in Latin grammar with good drill in cricket, boating, and wrestling. 1967Lebende Sprachen XII. 136/2 Drill or language laboratory drill, a series of exercises devised for giving practice in teaching or testing a particular skill. It may be in the form of a two-, three-, or four-phase drill. b. The agreed or recognized procedure, esp. on formal occasions. colloq.
1940D. Wheatley Faked Passports xxii. 265 Our Generals had so little imagination that the drill was always just the same and..the Germans got quite used to it. 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 28 The drill, the correct way of doing a job is always referred to in this manner, or as the ‘right drill’. 1957Listener 5 Dec. 925/2 He would come to dinner, swallow his soup, and then fall fast asleep. The servants knew the drill and kept his other courses warm. III. 7. attrib. and Comb. a. Pertaining to a drill or boring instrument, as drill-hole, drill-holder, drill-room, drill-spindle; drill-like adj.; drill-barrel, a cylinder round the shank of a drill, on which the string of the drill-bow works; drill-bow, a bow used for working a drill; drill-chuck, -extractor, -gauge, -jar, -pin, -plate (= breast-plate 3 b), -press, -stock (see quots.); drill pipe Oil Industry, piping which carries and rotates the bit when a hole is being drilled and conveys the circulating mud; drill string, (a) a string wound round the shank of a drill in order to rotate it; (b) Oil Industry, a column of drill pipe together with the bit and associated parts; a drilling string (cf. string n. 15 b).
1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 6 The bigger the *Drill-barrel is, the easier it runs about, but less swift... You must..keep your *Drill-Bow straining your String pretty stiff. 1865Lubbock Preh. Times xiv. (1869) 513 The Dacotahs used a drill bow for the purpose of obtaining fire.
1874Knight Dict. Mech., *Drill-chuck, a chuck in a lathe or drilling-machine for holding the shank of the drill.
Ibid., *Drill-extractor, a tool or implement for extracting from deep borings a broken or a detached drill.
Ibid., *Drill-gage, a tool for determining the angle of the basil or edge of a drill.
Ibid., *Drill-jar, a..stone or well-boring tool in which the tool-holder is lifted and dropped successively.
1698Ballard in Phil. Trans. XX. 420 Little..*drill-like pieces of Steel.
1850Chubb Locks & Keys 15 The *drill pins of the locks, and the pipes of the keys. 1874Knight Dict. Mech., Drill-pin, a pin in a lock which enters the hollow stem of a key.
1932Amer. Speech VII. 266 *Drill pipe.., (rotary equipment) heavy steel pipe which composes the column connecting the bit with the rotating apparatus at the surface. 1949Our Industry (Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. Ltd.) (ed. 2) ii. 39 When a drilling bit becomes worn to such an extent that the drilling speed falls off, the whole string of drill pipe must be withdrawn in order to replace the worn bit by a new one. 1974BP Shield Internat. Oct. 18/3 We might have to lift drill pipe to the drill floor. 1984Listener 27 Sept. 9 This innovative device grapples with enormous lengths of drill pipe, connecting them together as drilling progresses.
1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. 7 *Drill-Plate, or Breast-Plate..to set the blunt end of the Shank of the Drill in, when you drill a hole.
1864Webster, *Drill-press, a machine-tool embodying one or more drills for making holes in metal.
1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Drill-stock, the holdfast for a metal drill.
1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. 6 You may sometimes require..several *Drill-strings; the strongest Strings for the largest Drills. 1948Petroleum Handbk. (Shell Internat. Petroleum Co.) (ed. 3) v. 82 The great weight needed to push the bit downward into the formations is concentrated at the bottom of the drill string. 1975Offshore Progress—Technol. & Costs (Shell Briefing Service) 6 As the rig rises and falls with the heaving surface of the sea,..constant weight must be maintained through the drillstring on the drilling bit. 1979Drill string [see string n. 15 b]. 1984A. C. & A. Duxbury Introd. World's Oceans iii. 83 (in figure) Acoustical sensor on drill string determines drill bit position. b. Pertaining to or connected with military drill, as drill-day, drill-ground, drill-hall, drill-instructor, drill-master, drill-purpose, drill-room, drill-ship; drill-book, a manual of instruction in military or other drill; also attrib. and transf.; drill order (see order n.); drill-sergeant, a non-commissioned officer who trains soldiers in military evolutions.
1846United Services Mag. ii. 235 The French *drill-book. 1868All Year Round 11 July 108/1 He walks in a fine drill-book style. 1900Daily News 15 May 3/3 The Queensland Mounted Infantry contingent seem to have engrafted sufficient drill-book into their common-sense methods. 1906W. Wood Enemy in our Midst vii. 73 On a certain assumption which was that an enemy would work according to drill-book and rule-of-thumb. 1937G. Fairbanks (title) Voice and articulation drillbook.
1831J. Porter Sir E. Seaward's Narr. II. 169 After these arrangements, *drill-day came.
1844Regul. & Ord. Army 120 In the Barrack-Yard or *Drill-Ground.
1878Chambers's Encycl. III. 671/1 *Drill-halls, in which drill can be carried on comfortably in any kind of weather, are now common. 1891Scribner's Mag. X. 565 Entertainments are also given in the drill hall every Friday evening. 1933L. A. G. Strong Sea Wall x. 120 Jerry held..a grand tournament of all his pupils, hiring for the purpose a local drill-hall.
1876A. Arnold in Contemp. Rev. June 28 The..*drill-instructor has never before him the same body of men.
1869Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xviii. 34 The Holy Spirit is the great *Drill-master of heavenly soldiers.
1803(title) The Complete *Drill Serjeant. 1826Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. (1863) 265 Facing to right and left, under the command of a drill-sergeant.
a1865Smyth Sailor's Word-Bk. (1867) 264 *Drill-ships, a recent establishment of vessels in which the volunteers composing the Royal Naval Reserve are drilled into practice. 1948Jane's Fighting Ships 1947–48 50 Zetland was assigned to Solent Division R.N.V.R. as drillship.
Add:[I.] [1.] b. spec. One used by a dentist to remove tooth material.
1859J. Tomes Dental Surg. 344 Under the head of drills are included those instruments used in the preparation of cavities for the reception of plugs, which cut by a rotary motion. 1885J. Nasmyth Autobiogr. 396 Four years ago I saw the same arrangement in action at a dentist's operating-room, when a drill was worked in the mouth of a patient to enable a decayed tooth to be stopped... It was merely a replica of my flexible drill of 1829. 1930G. B. Shaw Applecart i. 40 Every dentist's drill in Shetland, every carpet sweeper in Margate, has its stream of driving power on tap from a switch in the wall. 1985S. Pepper Dentist 30/1 Modern dental drills may run at speeds of 300,000 revolutions per minute. ▪ III. drill, n.3|drɪl| Also 7 dril. [perh. ad. native name.] A West African species of baboon, Mandrillus leucophœus. Also attrib., as drill baboon, drill monkey.
1644Bulwer Chirol. A iv, The dumb Ginnie Drills. 1652― Anthropomet. (1653) 439 This relation of Tulpius shows this creature to have been a kind of Ginney Drill, which this Michaelmas Terme, 1652, I saw neare Charing Crosse..which Drill is since dead, and I believe dissected. 1654Cleveland Char. Diurnal-m. 12 A Diurnall-maker is the antemark [antimask] of an Historian, he differs from him as a Drill from a man. 1656Blount Glossogr., Dril..a large over-grown Ape, or Baboon, so called. 1726Swift It cannot rain but it pours Wks. 1755 III. i. 136 His ears..he can move like a drill, and turn them towards the sonorous object. 1847Carpenter Zool. §156 The Drill..is rather smaller in stature than the Mandrill..The face is black; but the beard is orange-coloured. 1898Westm. Gaz. 15 Feb. 11/3 The drill monkey, the most costly and rare of its kind in the gardens. 1905Daily Chron. 29 Apr. 7/1 The finest drill baboon ever seen in confinement is in the Bellevue Gardens. ▪ IV. drill, n.4 [Perh. the same word as drill n.1, in its sense of rill, runnel: cf. the senses of Ger. rille small furrow, drill, chamfer.] 1. A small furrow made in the soil, in which seed is sown; a ridge having such a furrow on its top; also, the row of plants thus sown.
1727Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Carnation, The seed may be sown..in drills drawn cross a bed by a Line. 1772T. Simpson Vermin-Killer 2, Field rats..will..run along the drills of peas. 1787Winter Syst. Husb. 184 The drills were eight inches asunder. 1834Penny Cycl. I. 224/2 The seed sown by hand falls into the bottom of the drills. Mod. A drill of potatoes or turnips. 2. A machine for sowing seed in drills, now usually having contrivances for drawing furrows and for covering the seed when sown.
1731J. Tull Horse-hoeing Husb. xxii. 147 The Drill is the Engine that plants our Corn and other Seeds in Rows; it makes the Channels, sows the Seed into them, and covers them. a1740― in C. W. Hoskins Occas. Ess. (1866) 102, I composed my machine. It was named a Drill, because when farmers used to sow their beans and pease into channels or furrows by hand, they called that action drilling. 1812Crabbe Tales 3 Wks. 1834 IV. 195 Corn sown by drill, or thresh'd by a machine. 1886T. Hardy Mayor Casterbr. xxiv, The new-fashioned..horse-drill. 3. attrib. and Comb., as drill-box, drill-culture, drill-husbandry, drill-man, drill-system; drill-barrow, a barrowlike contrivance for sowing in drills; drill-harrow (see quot.); drill-machine, -plough = sense 2.
1805R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. (1807) I. 28 The *drill-barrow is..well adapted for sowing some grains and small seeds.
1753Chambers Cycl. Supp., Drill, or *Drill-Box. 1847Craig, Drill-box, the box in a drill-machine which contains the seed.
Ibid., *Drill-harrow, a small harrow..used between the drills or rows for the purpose of extirpating weeds.
1784–5Ann. Reg. 59/2 *Drill husbandry is..the practise of a garden brought into the field.
1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 120 *Drill-machines, attached to the ploughs..or used with a horse or by hand.
1731J. Tull Horse-hoeing Husb. xxiii. 166 The *Drill-Plow which makes the Channels for a treble Row of Wheat. 1847Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. VIII. i. 63 A drill-plough, which drills the seed, and covers it in with the furrow turned by the plough. ▪ V. drill, n.5|drɪl| [Cf. Ger. drell (Brem. Wörterb.).] Abbreviated form of drilling n.
1743Lond. & Country Brew. iv. (ed. 2) 315 A Sort of Cloth called Drill. 1851Offic. Catal. Gt. Exhib. I. 99 Drills, and other Twilled Linens. 1876Monthly Pkt. June 570 Boys, on admission, to be..supplied with..2 suits of brown drill. 1887Pall Mall G. 12 Jan. 7/1 In cotton goods..America takes a high position in two descriptions, drills and sheetings. 1918H. G. Wells Joan & Peter xiii. 664 Both the pink gingham and the white drill had been tried on. 1967Listener 3 Aug. 156/2 Hugh Griffith in khaki drill and a pith helmet. attrib.1757in E. W. Cunnington et al. Dict. Eng. Costume (1960) 253/2 Dressed in..a white drill Frock. 1882B. Harte Flip i, His light drill garments. 1899E. W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman 223 A girl in a white drill coat and skirt. 1934‘G. Orwell’ Burmese Days vi. 96 Dressed in khaki pagri-cloth shirt, drill shorts and a pigsticker topi. ▪ VI. † drill, v.1 Obs. (exc. dial.). Also 4 dril. [Appears first in ME.: origin unknown.] 1. trans. and absol. To delay, defer, put off.
a1300Cursor M. 16390 (Cott.) Selcuth vs thinc o þe, pilate, wit drightin for to drill [Gött. wid dreching for to drill] We haf vs chosen nu baraban, him haf algat we will. Ibid. 23715 Þe ded ai wen we for to dril. 2. to drill away, on, out: to protract, lengthen out; to fritter away, spend aimlessly (time).
a1656Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 464 Purposely drilling out the time, hoping to encline the Senate to favour his designe. 1668G. Etherege She wou'd if she cou'd ii. i, We must drill away a little time here. 1672Marvell Reh. Transp. I. 306 They drill'd things on, till they might [etc.]. 1719D'Urfey Pills (1872) V. 180 He drills on his Evil, then curses his Fate, And bewails those misfortunes himself did create. a1745Swift (Webster, 1864) This accident hath drilled away the whole summer. 1751R. Paltock P. Wilkins xxx. (1883) 84/2 One pretence or other..of drilling on the time till the dark weather is over. 3. To lead, allure, or entice (a person) on from one point to another (in time or action); and so = to put off (cf. 1).
1669Marvell Corr. iii. Wks. 1872–5 II. 270 So speedily as they may not have drilled you on beyond the time of prosecution. a1688Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Poems (1775) 141 Nor is it wit that drills the statesman on To waste the sweets of life, so quickly gone. 1711Addison Spect. No. 89 ⁋1 She has bubbled him out of his Youth;..she drilled him on to Five and Fifty, and..she will drop him in his old Age. 1752Gray Lett. Wks. 1884 II. 231 He drilled him on with various pretences. 4. To draw or entice (a person) in, into a place; also on, along, out of a thing.
1662Hickeringill Wks. (1716) I. 296 Drilling in the rabble with their..buffooneries. 1681Ibid. 187 To drill Men out of their Estates. 1673R. Head Canting Acad. 72 [He] was pickt up by a pack of Rogues in the streets and drilled into a Tavern. 1696Aubrey Misc. (1721) 97 Having drill'd his Wife along 'till he came to a certain Close..he threw her by Force into the Water. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. v. 114 They drill'd them by discourse so near, that our men lay'd hold on all three at once. 5. intr. To slip away, vanish by degrees. dial.
c1315[see adrylle]. 1847–78Halliwell, Drill..to slide away. Kent. 1887Kentish Dial. (E.D.S.), Drill, to waste away by degrees. ▪ VII. † drill, v.2 Obs. [Etymology of this, and the cognate drill n.1, uncertain. The verb is identical in sense with trill, frequent from Chaucer onward, and may be an altered form of it. Cf. also Ger. trillen to flow whirling or rolling, cited by Grimm from a 17th c. writer, and taken by him as a sense of drillen to turn.] 1. intr. To flow in a small stream or in drops; to trickle, percolate; to drip.
1603Florio Montaigne i. xlix. (1632) 162 In summer they often caused cold water..to drill upon them as they sate in their dining chambers. 1609Heywood Brit. Troy (N.), Swift watry drops drill from his eye. 1782A. Monro Anat., Bones, Nerves 62 The liquor..drills down upon the membrane of the nose. refl.1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 209 Water..gently drils it selfe from the high Rocks. 2. transf. and fig. To be derived, spring, flow.
1638Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 111 Chaldy, Arabick, and Siriack drilling from the Hebrew. Hence ˈdrilling vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 214 Full of shadowing trees, and drilling Rivolets. 1665J. Webb Stone-Heng (1725) 226 The drilling down of the Water..from the..Hills. 1741Monro Anat. Nerves (ed. 3) 86 A constant drilling of a glairy Mucus. ▪ VIII. drill, v.3|drɪl| Also 7 dril, dryll, 9 Sc. dreel. [Known only from 17th c.; cf. drill n.2 All the senses are found in Du. drillen to drill, bore; to turn round; to shake, brandish; to drill, form to arms; to run hither and thither; to go through the manual exercise, MDu. drillen to bore, turn in a circle, brandish; cf. MLG. drillen to roll, to turn, MHG. and mod.Ger. drillen to turn, to round off, to bore, to drill soldiers. MHG. gedrollen ‘rounded’, drall ‘(twisted) tight’, point to an old strong verb, of ablaut series *þrell-, þrall-, þrull-. The English verb and n. were prob. from Dutch; they are not connected etymologically with thrill, thirl, OE. þyrelian, though sense 1 is identical in sense with it.] I. To pierce, bore, make a narrow hole. 1. a. trans. To pierce or bore a hole, passage, etc. in (anything); to perforate with or as with a drill or similar tool. Also spec. to shoot with a gun (colloq.). (Said chiefly of personal agents.)
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, clviii, The Stone dropt Sand; And the drill'd Alpes, became a Posterne which From Time lockt vp, noe foot had ever trode. 1697W. Dampier Voy. I. xvi. 466 Twirling the hard piece between the palms of their hands, they drill the soft piece till it smoaks, and at last takes fire. 1784Cowper Task i. 26 Drill'd in holes, the solid oak is found. 1808E. S. Barrett Miss-Led General i. 11 It would be a terrible affair to us..if we should be drilled with a bullet. 1833Marryat P. Simple iv, Being drilled was to be shot through the body. 1871P. H. Waddell Ps. xl. 6 My lugs ye hae dreel'd. 1879Jefferies Wild Life in S. Co. 213 Rabbit-holes drill the bank everywhere. 1930Amer. Mercury Dec. 455/2 Go drill the mutt. He's strictly stool. 1936M. Mitchell Gone with Wind xii. 223, I can drill a dime at fifty yards. b. intr. To pierce through.
1674N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 196 None of those rayes of other atoms..come riding or drilling through both. Ibid. 61. 2. To make or bore (a hole, etc.) by drilling. Also transf. of shooting.
1669Sturmy Mariner's Mag. ii. 73 There must be a Hole drill'd. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §36 The holes..appear to have been drilled into the rock by Jumpers. 1858Greener Gunnery 47 Drill a communication, and put in a nipple. 1890Nature 4 Sept. 446/1 On August 28, 1859, the first well, drilled in the United States with the object of obtaining petroleum, was successfully completed. 1912E. C. Bentley Trent's Last Case vi. 136 Thirty thousand men..would have jumped at the chance of drilling a hole through the man. II. †3. trans. To turn round and round; to whirl, twirl; in quot. 1681 to churn. Obs. or dial.
1681R. Knox Hist. Ceylon 97 They skim off the Cream, and drill it in an earthen Vessel with a stick. 1847–78Halliwell, Drill, to twirl, or whirl. Devon. III. To train in military movements and exercise. [Found from 17th c. also in Du., Ger., Da. (Not in Kilian 1599; in Hexham 1678). Prob. from the sense ‘turn round’.] 4. a. trans. To train or exercise in military evolutions and the use of arms. (‘An old cant word.’ J.)
1626Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Sea-men 37 Drilling your men..to ranke, file, march, skirmish, and retire. 1663Butler Hud. i. iii. 445 The Foe appear'd, drawn up and drill'd. 1842Macaulay Fredk. Gt. Ess. (1887) 695 The business of life, according to him, was to drill and be drilled. Ibid. 709 He drilled his people as he drilled his grenadiers. b. intr. for refl. and pass.
1848W. E. Forster in T. W. Reid Life I. vii. 26 May, Large numbers of men are armed and drilling nightly. Mod. The regiment drills regularly every day. 5. transf. and fig. To train or instruct as with military rigour and exactness. Const. into, in, to, and inf. (Also intr. for refl.)
1622Massinger Virg. Mart. ii. ii, I hug thee..For drilling thy quick brains in this rich plot. 1794Southey Botany Bay Eclog. iii, So I..was drill'd to repentance and reason. 1798Edgeworth Pract. Educ. (1811) I. 323 Where boys are to be drilled in a given time into scholars. 1842[see 4]. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxix. (1856) 254 We had drilled with knapsack and sledge, till we were almost martinets in our evolutions on the ice. 1856― Arct. Expl. I. xxix. 389 Bear-dogs..that had been drilled to relieve each other in the melée. 1873Black Pr. Thule xii. 182 He had drilled her in all that she should do and say. 6. a. To order or regulate exactly. b. To impart by strict method (a subject of knowledge). c. (See quot. 1894.) d. U.S. Railways. To shunt (carriages, engines, etc.).
1863‘Ouida’ Held in Bondage 2 Drill Greek, and instil religious principles into them. 1877Blackmore Erema lii, To be a great lady..and regulate and drill all the doings of nature. 1894Labour Commission Gloss. s.v., To drill a person is to refuse him employment for a certain period, say, a fortnight, as a punishment. Hence drilled, ˈdrilling ppl. adjs.; also ˈdrillingly adv., by way of drilling or boring.
1649Drill'd [see 1]. 1830[see driller2 2 a]. 1831Blackw. Mag. XXX. 490 The moths drillingly devoured the manuscript. 1879Froude Cæsar ix. 103 The superiority of the drilled Roman legions. ▪ IX. drill, v.4 [f. drill n.4] 1. trans. To sow (seed) in drills, as opposed to broadcast; to raise (crops) in drills.
a1740[see drill n.4 2]. 1788G. Washington Let. Writ. 1891 XI. 223 As all my corn will be thus drilled, so..I mean to put in drills also potatoes, carrots (as far as my seed will go), and turnips. 1837Penny Cycl. IX. 148/2 The crops which are now most generally drilled are potatoes, turnips, beans, peas, beet-root, cole-seed, and carrots. 2. To sow or plant (ground) in drills.
1785G. Washington Writ. (1891) XII. 225 A piece of ground..drilled with corn and potatoes between. 1894Times 19 Mar. 11/1 He drilled two acres of land with this barley. Hence drilled ppl. a.; drilling vbl. n.
1766Croker, etc. Dict. Arts s.v. Wheat, An Acre of drilled Wheat. 1767A. Young Farmer's Lett. People 117 The drilling method likewise promises great advantages. 1806–7A. Young Agric. Essex (1813) I. 100, I do not know that a drilled acre is superior in produce, at first, to a broad⁓cast acre. 1846J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) I. 241 Drilling, now styled the ‘New Husbandry,’ is in reality the primitive practice. 1876T. Hardy Ethelberta (1890) 108 Like a drilled-in crop of which not a seed has failed. |