still

• IPA^(key): /stɪl/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl

From Middle English stille (“motionless, stationary”), from Old English stille (“still, quiet, calm; without motion, at rest, not moving from a place, not disturbed; moving little or gently; silent; not loud; secret; unchanging, undisturbed, stable, fixed; not vehement, gentle”), from Proto-Germanic *stillijaz (“quiet, still”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stell; fixed, motionless, still, stiff”). Cognate with Scots stil (“still”), Saterland Frisian stil (“motionless, calm, quiet”), West Frisian stil (“quiet, still”), Dutch stil (“quiet, silent, still”), Low German still (“quiet, still”), German still (“still, quiet, tranquil, silent”), Swedish stilla (“quiet, silent, peaceful”), Icelandic stilltur (“set, quiet, calm, still”). Related to stall.

• stil
• stille, styll, stylle (obsolete)

still (comparative stiller or more still, superlative stillest or most still)

1. Not moving; calm.

   Still waters run deep.

2. Not effervescing; not sparkling.

   still water; still wines

3. Uttering no sound; silent.
   • Addison

     The sea that roared at thy command, / At thy command was still.

4. (not comparable) Having the same stated quality continuously from a past time
   • 2007, January 3, “Gerry Geronimo”, in Unwanted weed starts to sprout from a wayward ponencia‎:

     To follow the still President’s marching orders, all that Secretary Ronnie Puno has to do is to follow the road map laid out by Justice Azcuna in his “separate” opinion.

5. Comparatively quiet or silent; soft; gentle; low.
   • Bible, 1 Kings xix. 12

     a still small voice

6. (obsolete) Constant; continual.
   • Shakespeare

     By still practice learn to know thy meaning.

• (not moving): fixed, stationary, unmoving, static, inert, stagnant
• See also Thesaurus:silent

• still life
• stillness
• unstill

• be still my heart
• be still my beating heart
• still waters run deep

still (not comparable)

1. Without motion.

   They stood still until the guard was out of sight.

2. (aspect) Up to a time, as in the preceding time.
   • Francis Bacon

     It hath been anciently reported, and is still received.

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 15, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.

   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page vii:

     Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.

   • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

     An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

   Is it still raining?   It was still raining five minutes ago.

   We've seen most of the sights, but we are still to visit the museum.

3. (degree) To an even greater degree. Used to modify comparative adjectives or adverbs.

   Tom is tall; Dick is taller; Harry is still taller.

   ("still" and "taller" can easily swap places here)

   • Shakespeare

     The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed.

4. (conjunctive) Nevertheless.

   I’m not hungry, but I’ll still manage to find room for dessert.

   Yeah, but still...

   • Moore

     As sunshine, broken in the rill, / Though turned astray, is sunshine still.

5. (archaic, poetic) Always; invariably; constantly; continuously.
   • 1609 William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida 5.2.201-202:

     Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion.

   • Addison

     The desire of fame betrays an ambitious man into indecencies that lessen his reputation; he is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private.

   • Boyle

     Chemists would be rich if they could still do in great quantities what they have sometimes done in little.

6. (extensive) Even, yet.
   • 2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

     Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.

   Some dogs howl, more yelp, still more bark.

• (up to a time): yet
• (to an even greater degree): yet, even
• (nevertheless): nonetheless, though, yet
• (always): consistently, invariably, uniformly; See also Thesaurus:uniformly

still (plural stills)

1. A period of calm or silence.
   • 1901, Good Words (volume 42, page 7)

     Between the roar of the thunder and the blatter of the rain there were intervals of an astounding still, of an ominous suspense […]

   • 1983, Adrian Smith & Bruce Dickinson, "Flight of Icarus", on Iron Maiden, Piece of Mind.

     As the ground warms, to the first rays of light, / A birdsong shatters the still.

   the still of the night

2. (photography) A photograph, as opposed to movie footage.
3. (slang) A resident of the Falkland Islands.
4. A steep hill or ascent.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of W. Browne to this entry?)

Via Middle English, ultimately from Latin stilla

still (plural stills)

1. a device for distilling liquids.
2. (catering) a large water boiler used to make tea and coffee.
3. (catering) the area in a restaurant used to make tea and coffee, separate from the main kitchen.
4. A building where liquors are distilled; a distillery.

• pot still

Old English stillan

still (third-person singular simple present stills, present participle stilling, simple past and past participle stilled)

1. to calm down, to quiet

   to still the raging sea

   • Woodward

     He having a full sway over the water, had power to still and compose it, as well as to move and disturb it.

   • Shakespeare

     With his name the mothers still their babies.

   • Hawthorne

     toil that would, at least, have stilled an unquiet impulse in me

Aphetic form of distil, or from Latin stillare.

still (third-person singular simple present stills, present participle stilling, simple past and past participle stilled)

1. (obsolete) To trickle, drip.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.ii:

     any drop of slombring rest / Did chaunce to still into her wearie spright [...].

2. To cause to fall by drops.
3. To expel spirit from by heat, or to evaporate and condense in a refrigeratory; to distill.

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

• lilts, tills

From Middle High German [Term?], from Old High German stilli, from Proto-Germanic *stillijaz (“motionless, still, quiet”).

• IPA^(key): /ʃtɪl/

• Audio

  (file)

still (comparative stiller, superlative am stillsten)

1. quiet, silent

still

1. quietly, silently

• still in Duden online

• IPA^(key): /ʃtil/

still

1. quiet, silent

• Online Hunsrik Dictionary

• IPA^(key): /stɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɪl

still

1. imperative of stille

   Still deg i køen.

   Go stand in the queue.

still

1. imperative of stilla

still (masculine and feminine still, neuter stilt, definite singular and plural stille, comparative stillare, indefinite superlative stillast, definite superlative stillaste)

1. Alternative form of stille

still m (plural stills)

1. (photography) still