Meaning of Quill | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.
2. A surname from Irish.
3. A pen made from a feather.
4. Any pen.
   broadly
5. A sharply pointed, barbed, and easily detached needle-like structure that grows on the skin of a porcupine or hedgehog as a defense against predators.
6. A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.
7. The pen of a squid.
8. The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.
9. The tube of a musical instrument.
10. Something having the form of a quill, such as the fold or plain of a ruff, or (weaving) a spindle, or spool, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.
11. A quill drive, having a hollow shaft with another movable shaft inside it.

Equivalents

Examples

“The note was written in a delicate hand with a crow-quill, on primrose-coloured paper, with a lilac seal—the motto "tout à vous;" and the whole with just a faint perfume of jasmine.”

“He picked up his quill and wrote a poem.”

“I could a Tale vnfold, vvhoſe lighteſt vvord / VVould harrovv vp thy ſoule, freeze thy young blood, / Make thy tvvo eyes like Starres, ſtart from their Spheres, / Thy knotty and combined locks to part, / And each particular haire to ſtand an end, / Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine: […]”

“He touched the tender stops of various quills.”

“His hair still stood up in punk-rock quills and spikes.”

“The motors are attached to the bogie frames so as to be fully springborne, and drive through quills and flexible couplings to the wheels.”

CEFR level