bills

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of bill.

   She sorted the unpaid bills into a neat stack before sitting down.

   Rising energy bills strained the family budget all winter.

   Note

   One plural covers very different kinds of paper: demands for payment, drafts of laws before a legislature, and, in the US and Canada, banknotes. So a wallet full of bills holds cash, not debt. In the fixed phrases the plural falls on the first noun: bills of lading, bills of sale. North American slang also uses bill for one hundred dollars, and context tells that apart from a single banknote.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of bill.

   The law firm bills its clients by the hour for consultations.

   The contractor bills separately for materials and labor.

   Note

   The verb shares its spelling with the plural noun: the firm bills, she bills. Its everyday work is charging. It takes the person charged as its object (it bills the client) and adds the basis with for or by (bills for materials, bills by the hour). Older and narrower uses survive too. Doves that bill caress by stroking bill against bill, and in UK slang someone who bills is rolling a marijuana cigarette.

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