prill

• Rhymes: -ɪl

A variant of purl, 17th century.

prill (third-person singular simple present prills, present participle prilling, simple past and past participle prilled)

1. to flow, spurt

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Stow to this entry?)

prill (plural prills)

1. a rill, a small stream
   • 1603, John Davies, Microcosmos

     Each silver Prill gliding on golden Sand

2. (obsolete) a spinning top

Unknown. OED mentions Cornish pryl (“sheep-droppings”) as a likely loan from English.

prill (plural prills)

1. a pellet, a granule, a small bead
   • 2000, R. R. Fullwood, Probabilistic Safety Assessment in the Chemical and Nuclear Industries, page 275

     Prills are free-flowing pellets developed for fertilizer as a coarse product with little setting tendency that can be spread easily and smoothly.

   • 2007, Stan A. David, Trends in Welding Research: Proceedings of the 7Th International, page 661

     The resulting solution is evaporated and converted into prills, i.e. dense flakes or grains, of solid ammonium nitrate.

2. rich copper ore remaining after removal of low-grade material; a droplet of copper suspended in molten slag
3. (mining) A nugget of virgin metal.
4. The button of metal from an assay.

prill (third-person singular simple present prills, present participle prilling, simple past and past participle prilled)

1. to produce pellets by forming a molten substance into droplets which solidify while falling

• pelletize

• prilling
• prill sulfur

prill (plural prills)

1. The brill, a kind of flatfish.

Ultimately from Latin Aprīlis. Compare popular Romanian prier (“April”), Aromanian aprir, prilj.

prill m

1. April