till

• enPR: tĭl, IPA^(key): /tɪl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl

From Middle English til, from Northern Old English til, from or akin to Old Norse til (“to, till”); both from Proto-Germanic *til (“to, toward”), 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. Cognate with Old Frisian til (“to, till”), Danish til (“to”), Swedish till (“to, till”), Icelandic til (“to, till”). Also related to Old English til (“good”), German Ziel (“goal”), Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌻 (til, “something fitting or suitable”).

till

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

   She stayed till the very end.

   I have to work till eight o'clock tonight.

   • 1854, Prof. John Wilson, The Genius and Character of Burns, page 194:

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

   • 1946 May and June, G. A. Sekon, “L.B.S.C.R. West Coast Section—3”, in Railway Magazine, page 148:

     The line was authorised on June 23, 1864, but not opened till July 11, 1881.

   • 2019 March 14, Ramzy Baroud, “Chasing mirages: What are Palestinians doing to combat ‘Deal of the Century’?”, in Ma'an News‎^[1], archived from the original on 30 March 2019:

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

2. Before (a certain time or event).

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

   • 1880, A. T. Fullerton, “Fever”, in Littell's Living Age, volume 147, page 578:

     Is that the town-clock striking? / I think that it is to-night / My fever will reach its crisis, / There are long hours yet till light.

3. (obsolete or dialectal) To, up to (physically).

   They led him till his tent

   • 1599, William Shakespeare (attributed), The Passionate Pilgrim:

     She, poor bird, as all forlorn / Lean'd her breast up-till a thorn / And there sung the dolefull'st ditty, / To to hear it was great pity.

   • 1806, “Lord Wa'Yates and Auld Ingram”, in Robert Jameson, editor, Popular Ballads and Songs, volume 2:

     And till the kirk she wadna gae, / nor till't she wadna ride, / Till four-and-twenty men she gat her before, / And twenty on ilka side

   • 1838, “The Outlaw Murray”, in Walter Scott, editor, Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border:

     For a king to gang an outlaw till / Is beneath his state and his dignitie.

4. (obsolete or dialectal) To, toward (in attitude).
   • 1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 20:

     "Here's at you old hoss!" hiccupped I, with a friendly pitch in the way of a nod at Rice.
     "Go it, young grampus, that's me! Here's till ye, my infant progidy!" replied he, as he clinked his glass against mine.

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     And then she changed her voice and would be as saft as honey: 'My puir wee Ailie, was I thrawn till ye? Never mind, my bonnie. You and me are a' that's left, and we maunna be ill to ither.'

5. (dialectal) So that (something may happen).
   • 1953?, Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

     VLADIMIR: Together again at last! We'll have to celebrate this. But how? (He reflects.) Get up till I embrace you.

The preposition till is ubiquitous in informal register in modern English; nonetheless, in formal register it is often replaced with until or to, except for in some varieties, such as Indian English. This predisposition is likely influenced by the widespread misapprehension that till is a "corruption" of 'til, although it is not. In fact 'til itself is also deprecated by some writers because its apostrophe was born of that same misapprehension.

• (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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Song of Solomon 2:7:

     I charge you, O ye daughters of Ierusalem, by the Roes, and by the hindes of the field, that ye stirre not vp, nor awake my loue, 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 (poetic), until; see also Thesaurus:until

From Middle English tylle (“till”), possibly from Middle English tillen (“to draw”) from Old English *tyllan (“to draw, attract”) (as in betyllan (“to lure, decoy”) and fortyllan (“to draw away”); related to *tollian > Middle English tollen). 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. (chiefly British) A cash register.
   • 2005, Michael Winner, Winner Takes All‎^[2], →ISBN, page 11:

     I got most of the money to pay for all this by stealing. It was very wrong. Today I'm so finickity that I fired one of my staff for nicking twenty-pence worth of curtain hangers from Barkers because he couldn't be bothered to wait at the till queue.

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

   Pull all the tills and lock them in the safe.

   When you've finished serving that customer could you jump off please? We need to take the till.

   • 2023 July 26, Pip Dunn, “Merseyrail '777s' are OK for commuters”, in RAIL, number 988, page 59:

     That said, and I'll put this down to its newness, the bin lid was a bit snappy, like Arkwright's till (google that if you're a youngster).

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. A cash drawer in a bank, used by a teller.
5. (obsolete) A tray or drawer in a chest.

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.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 3:23:

     Therefore 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.
   • 1614, William Browne, The Shepherd's Pipe:

     Nor knowes a trappe nor snare to till

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:till.

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

till

1. glacial drift consisting of a mixture of clay, sand, pebbles and boulders
2. (dialect) 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

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “till”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “till”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Until, Till, 'Til, or 'Till? in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 11 June 2019.

Footnotes

• it'll, lilt, lit'l

• IPA^(key): /ˈtilː(ʲ)/, [ˈtʲilː(ʲ)]
• Rhymes: -ilː, -ilʲː
• Hyphenation: till

From Middle Low German dille. First attested in 1660.

till (genitive tilli, partitive tilli)

1. dill (Anethum)

Declension of till (ÕS type 22e/riik, length gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		till	tillid
accusative	nom.
	gen.	tilli
genitive			tillide
partitive		tilli	tille tillisid
illative		tilli tillisse	tillidesse tillesse
inessive		tillis	tillides tilles
elative		tillist	tillidest tillest
allative		tillile	tillidele tillele
adessive		tillil	tillidel tillel
ablative		tillilt	tillidelt tillelt
translative		tilliks	tillideks tilleks
terminative		tillini	tillideni
essive		tillina	tillidena
abessive		tillita	tillideta
comitative		tilliga	tillidega

Possibly derived from the same stem seen in many dialectal bird names: tillutaja, tillutis, tilder (“shank (Tringa)”). It's not uncommon for bird names to become euphemistic terms for genitalia, cf. kull (“hawk”), English cock.

Another theory suggests this term is a hypocoristic variant of the stem seen in tila (“spout”), which in some dialects might have referred to a young boy's genitalia.

till (genitive tilli, partitive tilli)

1. (colloquial) penis

Declension of till (ÕS type 22e/riik, length gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		till	tillid
accusative	nom.
	gen.	tilli
genitive			tillide
partitive		tilli	tille tillisid
illative		tilli tillisse	tillidesse tillesse
inessive		tillis	tillides tilles
elative		tillist	tillidest tillest
allative		tillile	tillidele tillele
adessive		tillil	tillidel tillel
ablative		tillilt	tillidelt tillelt
translative		tilliks	tillideks tilleks
terminative		tillini	tillideni
essive		tillina	tillidena
abessive		tillita	tillideta
comitative		tilliga	tillidega

Onomatopoeic.

till

1. ding, tinkle (high-pitched sound of a bell)

• till in Sõnaveeb (Eesti Keele Instituut)
• “till”, in [EKSS] Eesti keele seletav sõnaraamat [Descriptive Dictionary of the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online version), Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus (Estonian Language Foundation), 2009
• Jüri Viikberg (2016) “till”, in [ASL] Alamsaksa laensõnad eesti keeles [Low German Loanwords in the Estonian Language] (in Estonian) (online dictionary)

till

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

From Middle Irish tillid, alteration of Old Irish fillid (compare Irish fill).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃʰiːʎ/
• (Lewis) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃʰəiʎ]

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.

• MacLennan, Malcolm (1925) A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Edinburgh: J. Grant, →OCLC

• til (archaic)

From Old Swedish til, from Old Norse til, from Proto-Germanic *til (compare *tilą (“goal”)).

• IPA^(key): /tɪl/

• Audio:

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /tɪ/ (unstressed – see the usage notes for the preposition below)
• IPA^(key): /teː/

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

   en present till min syster ― a present for my sister

   pengar till resan ― money for the trip

   Vad vill du ha till middag? ― What do you want for dinner?

3. with

   Jag tar mjölk till mitt kaffe ― I take milk with my coffee

4. of

   en kompis till mig ― a friend of mine

5. this (the coming) (As a rule of thumb, "till" is only used for (longer) time periods that you might put in the definite, like seasons or the weekend, and not for days of the week and the like. See also nu.)

   Till sommaren ska vi åka på semester till Island

   This (coming) summer we are going on vacation to Iceland

   "Ahead in the summer," intuitively. Would not be said during the summer to refer to the next summer, as "ahead in the summer" sounds weird in that case.

   (Nu) till helgen avgörs Allsvenskan

   The Allsvenskan [a soccer league] title will be decided this (coming) weekend

   (literally, “(Now) this (coming) weekend, Allsvenskan is decided/determined [Nu (“now”) can be used to emphasize a point in time close to the present. Compare "på fredag" (on Friday) vs. "nu på fredag" (this Friday).]”)

   "Ahead during the weekend," intuitively, or "ahead this weekend" with nu (“now”).

   Jag ska dit till veckan

   I'm going [to] there [thither] next week [the coming week]

   Might also imply not very late next week. Could also be expressed as "Jag ska dit nästa vecka" (I'm going there next week). "Till dagen (“the day”) / månaden (“the month”) / året (“the year”)" and the like sound strange – "till" might mostly be limited to weeks.

• Often (more or less subconsciously to native speakers) clipped to "ti" (/tɪ/) in speech. Such clipping is less common for the adverb below, even when till is not the final word in the sentence, due to till being stressed as an adverb.
• Earlier, till governed the genitive case. Remains can still be found in certain expressions:

• hur står det till?

• tills

• nu

till

1. another, more; in addition

   Jag vill ha en/två till

   I want another one / two more

   Jag ska vara här en vecka till

   I'll be here for another week

3. Expresses that the action of the verb is sudden and brief, when used with certain verbs. The examples below are for illustration and not comprehensive. Fairly productive for verbs where suddenness and short duration make intuitive sense.

   Han skrattade ― He laughed

   Han skrattade till ― He chuckled

   Han hoppade ― He jumped

   Han hoppade till ― He flinched

   Han somnade ― He fell asleep

   Han somnade till ― He nodded off

   Han slog honom ― He hit him

   Han slog till honom ― He gave him a punch [fairly synonymous, but makes it clear that it's a single punch and sounds a bit more intense]

   Han syntes ― He was visible

   Han syntes till ― He was spotted

4. Expresses that something is (completely or partially) changed or created through the action of the verb, similar to English up. Sometimes more or less redundant like in English, with a similar difference in tone.

   Synonym: (sometimes) för-

   ful ― ugly

   fula till ― ugly up [uglify]

   fula till något ― ugly something up

   laga till en måltid ― cook up a meal ["till" skippable, like in English]

   snida till en träfigur ― carve "up" [in the same sense as for the meal] a wooden figure ["till" skippable]

   trä ― wood

   träa till ― "wood up" [make woodier or the like, as an ad-hoc formation, which usually sound colloquial like in English]

   1. Expresses that the action of the verb brings the target of the verb toward (and usually to) a closed state.

      Synonym: (to a closed state) igen

      Antonym: upp

      knäppa till jackan ― button up one's jacket ["till" skippable, like in English]

      täppa till ett hål ― plug (up) a hole

      stänga till dörren

      shut / close [up] the door ["till" skippable – emphasizes the result (that the door becomes shut), similar to "up"]

      Grinden står lite öppen. Kan du stänga till den?

      The gate is a bit open. Can you close it? ["till" skippable]

      Stäng till dörren lite! ― Close the door a bit! [leaving it ajar]

5. (in some phrasal verbs) in(to) existence

   bli till

   come into being [become into existence]

   komma till

   come about [come into existence]

   finnas till

   exist [be in existence]

6. to a toward orientation

   vända andra kinden till (idiom)

   turn the other cheek [toward]

The stress is on till, which helps disambiguate.

• en till

• till in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• till in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• till in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

till (definite form till gi)

1. jackal

till

1. alternative form of del
   • 1867, “THE WEDDEEN O BALLYMORE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 6, page 96:

     To our pleoughès an mulk-pylès till a neeshte holy die.

     To our ploughs and our milk-pails till the next holiday.

   • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 116, lines 14-15:

     till ee zin o'oure daies be var aye be ee-go t'glade.

     until the sun of our lives be gone down the dark valley (of death).

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 96