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pill

The peel or skin. Some be covered over with crusts, or hard pills, as the locusts.

Origin: Cf. Peel skin, or Pillion.

1. To deprive of hair; to make bald.

2. To peel; to make by removing the skin. [Jacob] pilled white streaks . . . In the rods. (gen. Xxx. 37)

Origin: Cf. L. Pilare to deprive of hair, and E. Pill, n. (above).

1. A medicine in the form of a little ball, or small round mass, to be swallowed whole.

2. Figuratively, something offensive or nauseous which must be accepted or endured.

(Science: zoology) Pill beetle, any terrestrial isopod of the genus armadillo, having the habit of rolling itself into a ball when disturbed.

Synonym: pill wood louse.

Origin: F. Pilute, L. Pilula a pill, little ball, dim. Of L. Pila a ball. Cf. Piles.