till

• enPR: tĭl, IPA^(key): /tɪl/

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• Rhymes: -ɪl

Old English (Northumbrian) til, from Old Norse til, from Proto-Germanic *tilą (“planned point in time”).[1][2] Not a shortening of until; rather, until comes from till with the prefix un- (“against; toward; up to”) also found in unto.

till

1. Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time).

   She stayed till the very end.

   It's twenty till two. (1:40)

   I have to work till eight o'clock tonight.

   • 1854, Prof. John Wilson, The Genius and Character of Burns, p.194 (Google preview):

     Similar sentiments will recur to everyone familiar with his writings all through them till the very end.

   • 2019 March 14, Ramzy Baroud, “Chasing mirages: What are Palestinians doing to combat ‘Deal of the Century’?”, in Ma'an News‎:

     While the PA has not always seen eye-to-eye with US foreign policy, its survival remained, till recently, a top American priority.

2. (obsolete) To, up to (physically).

   They led him till his tent

   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:

     , Bk.XVIII, Ch.vii:

     Than the knyghtes parters of the lystis toke up Sir Madore and led hym tylle hys tente.

3. (dialectal) In order that, to enable.

   Come here till I speak to you

• (until): til (nonstandard), 'til (nonstandard), until

till

1. Until, until the time that.

   Maybe you can, maybe you can't: you won't know till you try.

   • 1582, Douay–Rheims Bible, Song of Songs 2:7:

     […] that you stir not up, nor make the beloved to awake, till she please.

   • 1846, Edward Lear, The Book of Nonsense:

     She twirled round and round, / Till she sunk underground, […]

   • 1912, anonymous, Punky Dunk and the Mouse, P.F. Volland & Co.:

     And the Mouse sat and laughed till he cried.

• (until): til (nonstandard), 'til (informal), until

From Middle English tylle (“till”), potentially from Middle English tillen (“to draw”) from Old English *tyllan (as in betyllan (“to lure, decoy”) and fortyllan (“to draw away”); related to tollian). Cognate with Albanian ndjell (“I lure, attract”).

Alternatively, Middle English tylle is from Anglo-Norman tylle (“compartment”) from Old French tille (“compartment, shelter on a ship”) from Old Norse þilja (“plank”).

till (plural tills)

1. A cash register.
2. A removable box within a cash register containing the money.

   Pull all the tills and lock them in the safe.

3. The contents of a cash register, for example at the beginning or end of the day or of a cashier's shift.

   My count of my till was 30 dollars short.

4. (obsolete) A tray or drawer in a chest.

• have one's hand in the till

From Middle English tilyen, from Old English tilian.

till (third-person singular simple present tills, present participle tilling, simple past and past participle tilled)

1. (transitive) To develop so as to improve or prepare for usage; to cultivate (said of knowledge, virtue, mind etc.).
2. (transitive) To work or cultivate or plough (soil); to prepare for growing vegetation and crops.
   • Bible, Genesis iii. 23

     The Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

3. (intransitive) To cultivate soil.
4. (obsolete) To prepare; to get.

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

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:till.

Unknown, but possibly via etymology 3 (the verb) because alluvial deposit is used as a fertilizer.

till (plural tills)

1. glacial drift consisting of a mixture of clay, sand, pebbles and boulders
2. (dialectal) manure or other material used to fertilize land

• glacial till

From Middle English tylle; shortened from lentile (English lentil).

till (plural tills)

1. A vetch; a tare.

General

• till in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• till in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• Until, Till, 'Til, or 'Till? in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 11 June 2019.

Footnotes

• it'll, lilt

till (genitive tilli, partitive tilli)

1. dill (herb)
2. (slang) penis

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

till

1. Alternative form of tillen (“to enthrall”)

• IPA^(key): /tʰʲiːʎ/

till (past thill, future tillidh, verbal noun tilleadh, past participle tillte)

1. to return, come back
2. to relapse
   • Thill ris. ― He has got a relapse.

• A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language (John Grant, Edinburgh, 1925, Compiled by Malcolm MacLennan)

From Old Swedish til, from Old Norse til, from Proto-Germanic *tila- (“goal”), from Proto-Indo-European *ád (“near, at”).

• IPA^(key): /tɪl/

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till

1. to

   Välkommen till Sverige!

   Welcome to Sweden!

   Ge den till mig.

   Give it to me.

   Vi behöver två till fem nya datorer.

   We need two to five new computers.

2. for

   en bra TV till ett bra pris

   a good TV for a good price

   Vad vill du ha till middag?

   What do you want for dinner?

   en present till min syster

   a present for my sister

   pengar till resan

   money for a trip

3. with

   Jag tar mjölk till mitt kaffe

   I take milk with my coffee

• Earlier, till governed the genitive case. Remains can still be found in certain expressions: tillbaka (“back”), till bords (“to the table”), till buds (“to aid, at hand”), till doms (“to judgement”), tillfreds (“at peace, content”), till godo (“for good, as credit”), till hands (“at hand”), tillhanda (“at hand, available”), till havs (“to sea”), till kojs (“to bed”), till kungs (“to the king”), till lags (“of service, to please”), till lands (“on land”), till livs (“to life, to eat”), till påska (“until Easter”), till reds (“to aid”), till sjöss (“to sea”), till skogs (“to the forest”), till sängs (“to bed”), till torgs (“to the market”), till vägs ände (“to the end of the road”), till väders (“in the air”)

• hur står det till?

till

1. another; in addition
   • Jag ska vara här en vecka till.
     • I'll be here for another week.

till (definite form till gi)

1. jackal