SILL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sill mean? 

• SILL (noun)
  The noun SILL has 2 senses:

1. structural member consisting of a continuous horizontal timber forming the lowest member of a framework or supporting structure

2. (geology) a flat (usually horizontal) mass of igneous rock between two layers of older sedimentary rock

  Familiarity information: SILL used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SILL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Structural member consisting of a continuous horizontal timber forming the lowest member of a framework or supporting structure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

structural member (support that is a constituent part of any structure or building)

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

doorsill; doorstep; threshold (the sill of a door; a horizontal piece of wood or stone that forms the bottom of a doorway and offers support when passing through a doorway)

windowsill (the sill of a window; the horizontal member at the bottom of the window frame)

Sense 2

Meaning:

(geology) a flat (usually horizontal) mass of igneous rock between two layers of older sedimentary rock

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

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

rock; stone (a lump or mass of hard consolidated mineral matter)

Domain category:

geology (a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks)

 Context examples 

On entering the house, however, I examined, as you remember, the sill and framework of the hall window with my lens, and I could at once see that someone had passed out.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But the fact is that whilst the Professor was talking there came a big bat and sat on the window-sill.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Holmes swept his light along the window-sill.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He gripped the sill, and had his knee on it in an instant.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is a thousand pities that we have not a reproduction of those which were done in chalk upon the window-sill.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They found that some of the glaciers balance on giant earthen sills that are protecting them, for now.

(The Hidden Meltdown of Greenland, NASA)

I gave another tug before I answered, for I wanted the bird to be secure of its bread: the sash yielded; I scattered the crumbs, some on the stone sill, some on the cherry-tree bough, then, closing the window, I replied—No, Bessie; I have only just finished dusting.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

When I came back, I found my aunt's birds hanging, just as they had hung so long in the parlour window of the cottage; and my easy-chair imitating my aunt's much easier chair in its position at the open window; and even the round green fan, which my aunt had brought away with her, screwed on to the window-sill.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The ship was talking, as sailors say, loudly, treading the innumerable ripples with an incessant weltering splash; and until I got my eye above the window-sill I could not comprehend why the watchmen had taken no alarm.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The gravel upon the window-sill was, of course, the starting-point of my research.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)