thrill

• IPA^(key): /θɹɪl/
  • (UK, US) IPA^(key): [θɾ̪̊ɪɫ]
  • (Ireland) IPA^(key): [θɾ̪̊ɪl~t̪ɾ̪̊ɪl]

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪl

From Old English þyrlian. Connected to Old English þyrel (archaic English thirl).

thrill (third-person singular simple present thrills, present participle thrilling, simple past and past participle thrilled)

1. (ergative) To suddenly excite someone, or to give someone great pleasure; to (figuratively) electrify; to experience such a sensation.
   • 1937, Frank Churchill and Leigh Harline, “One Song”, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney:

     One love / That has possessed me; / One love / Thrilling me through

   • M. Arnold

     vivid and picturesque turns of expression which thrill the reader with sudden delight

   • Spenser

     The cruel word her tender heart so thrilled, / That sudden cold did run through every vein.

2. (ergative) To (cause something to) tremble or quiver.
3. (obsolete) To perforate by a pointed instrument; to bore; to transfix; to drill.
   • Spenser

     He pierced through his chafed chest / With thrilling point of deadly iron brand.

4. (obsolete) To hurl; to throw; to cast.
   • Heywood

     I'll thrill my javelin.

• enthrill

thrill (plural thrills)

1. A trembling or quivering, especially one caused by emotion.
   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

     She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

2. A cause of sudden excitement; a kick.
3. (medicine) A slight quivering of the heart that accompanies a cardiac murmur.
4. A breathing place or hole; a nostril, as of a bird.

From thread (verb) + drill (verb)

thrill (third-person singular simple present thrills, present participle thrilling, simple past and past participle thrilled)

1. (machining) To drill and thread in one operation, using a tool bit that cuts the hole and the threads in one series of computer-controlled movements.