GILL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gill mean? 

• GILL (noun)
  The noun GILL has 4 senses:

1. a British imperial capacity unit (liquid or dry) equal to 5 fluid ounces or 142.066 cubic centimeters

2. a United States liquid unit equal to 4 fluid ounces

3. any of the radiating leaflike spore-producing structures on the underside of the cap of a mushroom or similar fungus

4. respiratory organ of aquatic animals that breathe oxygen dissolved in water

  Familiarity information: GILL used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GILL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A British imperial capacity unit (liquid or dry) equal to 5 fluid ounces or 142.066 cubic centimeters

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("gill" is a kind of...):

British capacity unit; Imperial capacity unit (a unit of measure for capacity officially adopted in the British Imperial System; British units are both dry and wet)

Meronyms (parts of "gill"):

fluid ounce; fluidounce (a British imperial unit of capacity or volume (liquid or dry) equal to 8 fluid drams or 28.416 cubic centimeters (1.734 cubic inches))

Holonyms ("gill" is a part of...):

pint (a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 4 gills or 568.26 cubic centimeters)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A United States liquid unit equal to 4 fluid ounces

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Hypernyms ("gill" is a kind of...):

United States liquid unit (a liquid unit officially adopted in the United States Customary System)

Meronyms (parts of "gill"):

fluid ounce; fluidounce (a United States unit of capacity or volume equal to 1.804 cubic inches)

Holonyms ("gill" is a part of...):

cup (a United States liquid unit equal to 8 fluid ounces)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any of the radiating leaflike spore-producing structures on the underside of the cap of a mushroom or similar fungus

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

gill; lamella

Hypernyms ("gill" is a kind of...):

plant organ (a functional and structural unit of a plant or fungus)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Respiratory organ of aquatic animals that breathe oxygen dissolved in water

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

branchia; gill

Hypernyms ("gill" is a kind of...):

respiratory organ (any organ involved in the process of respiration)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gill"):

ctenidium (comb-like respiratory structure serving as the gill of certain mollusks)

ceras (one of the often brightly colored and branching hornlike structures on the back of the nudibranch (and other related mollusks) that serve as gills)

external gill (occurs in some mollusks and in tadpoles and other immature amphibians)

 Context examples 

He must have drunk a gill before he took the bottle from his mouth.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The sevengill has seven gills, whereas most species of shark have only five gills on each side of their bodies.

(Study indicates as great white shark disappears, living fossil moves in, Wikinews)

They control water metabolism and balance by regulating lung, gill, kidney, etc., and water loss, and also contract smooth muscle.

(Argipressin, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

And, significantly, its head would have made up about a third of its body length, with big gills.

(Ancient sharks likely more diverse than previously thought, National Science Foundation)

“A healthy young slip of a gale from the breath iv it, sir,” he answered, “with a splatter iv rain just to wet our gills an’ no more.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

A grouping of jawed and jawless vertebrate animals usually having fins and a covering of scales or plates, breathing by means of gills, and living almost entirely in the water.

(FISH, NCI Thesaurus)

For millions of years, symbiotic bacteria have lived inside the gills of Lucinidae clams found in seagrass meadows located along tropical coasts, such as the Florida Keys.

(Microbe diversity is key to healthy coastal ecosystems, National Science Foundation)

The young slip of a gale, having wetted our gills, proceeded to moderate.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Teeth and scales, along with a small amount of calcified cartilage from the jaw and gill structure of a Gladbachus, dated back 385 million years, were collected in Germany which, like most of Europe, was covered by seawater during the ancient shark's lifetime.

(Ancient sharks likely more diverse than previously thought, National Science Foundation)