fill

FIL/fɪl/

Verbfills, filling, filled

Noun pluralfills

18 meanings of fill

Practice

1
pour inverbtransitive
To put something into a container, space, or hole until it is full, or to become full.
Workers filled the trench with gravel before paving the road.
Fill the tank completely before the long drive north.
UsageYou fill the container with the contents: fill a glass with water. Fill up is also common.
Similarload, pack, stuff, cram
Oppositeempty, drain, clear
2
pack a placeverbtransitive
To take up all or most of a space, or to spread through it completely, as crowds fill a hall or smoke fills a room.
Tall shelves fill the library's main hall from wall to wall.
The exhibition filled three entire floors of the museum.
UsageCommon with smells, sounds and light: filled the air, filled the room.
Similaroccupy, crowd, pack
Note
Nothing has to arrive for this sense to apply. Whatever fills a space simply takes it all up, and the subject is often something without bulk: a smell, or the sound of trumpets in Tobias Smollett's translation of Don Quixote. Charles Dickens turns it inward in Great Expectations with "the theme that so filled my heart," where the space is a mind.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
Tobias Smollett translated Don Quixote. gutenberg.org
Smollett’s translation describes the sound of trumpets filling the air. gutenberg.org
Charles Dickens wrote Great Expectations. gutenberg.org
The exact phrase occurs in Great Expectations, in Pip’s narration rather than as a personal statement by Dickens. gutenberg.org
3
swell with (feeling)verbintransitive
To gradually become pervaded with something as a feeling or substance spreads throughout.
His chest filled with dread as the footsteps approached.
Reading his father's old letters, he felt himself slowly fill with regret.
UsageUse with before the feeling or substance: her heart filled with dread, her eyes filled with tears.
Similarswell, flood
4
job openingverbtransitive
To place someone in a position or office, removing a vacancy.
The committee filled the vacant seat with a local candidate.
They hope to fill the directorship by the end of the quarter.
UsageThe object is the job, not the person: fill a position, the post has been filled.
Note
A related phrase, fill out a term, means serving the rest of someone else's. Allen Morse's 1891 opinion in Lawrence v. Hanley uses it for a probate judge chosen at a special election.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Allen Morse wrote the opinion in Lawrence v. Hanley in 1891. en.wiktionary.org
The opinion uses “fill out” for a probate judge elected at a special election. courts.michigan.gov
5
complete an orderverbtransitive
To satisfy or carry out an order, request, or requirement.
The pharmacist filled the prescription within the hour.
Suppliers must fill every order exactly as specified.
UsageMost often fill an order or fill a prescription.
Similarfulfill, complete, dispense, execute, meet
Note
Shops and pharmacies keep this sense busy. A pharmacist fills a prescription, and a supplier fills an order. It also stretches to needs and requirements: a library can fill a great need in its community, and a borrower must fill a list of requirements for a loan. In these looser uses, meet is the close alternative, and nothing is physically put into anything.
6
act of loadingnouncountable or uncountable
The act of filling a container or area, or the amount that does so.
Each fill of the reservoir took most of the afternoon.
The mechanic charged a flat rate per fill of refrigerant.
Similarcharge
Note
Counted as an operation, a fill is one cycle of filling, so a filling machine can manage twenty fills a minute. Graphics software borrows the word for the color or pattern poured into a shape. A paint program offers solid and textured fills alongside lines and circles, and that is the sense most computer users meet first.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
A countable fill can mean one filling operation. en.wiktionary.org
A filling machine can perform twenty fills per minute. amsonengineering.com
The container-filling sense extends to fills in graphics software. en.wiktionary.org
7
satisfy hungerverbtransitive
To supply fully with food so as to satisfy hunger; to feed and sate.
A single loaf filled the whole family that evening.
A bowl of oatmeal will fill me better than any cereal does.
UsageOften fill someone up: this soup will fill you up.
Similarfeed, satisfy, sate, satiate
Note
The appetite sense has a long pedigree. The King James Bible of 1611 asks where enough bread could be found "to fill so great a multitude." Francis Bacon observes that sweet and fat things are "more filling," and that adjective packs the sense into one word: a filling meal is one that does this. The noun relative is having one's fill.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
The King James Bible was first published in 1611. en.wikipedia.org
The appetite sense is centuries old: Matthew 15:33 in the King James Bible contains the quoted words, spoken by Jesus's disciples. en.wikisource.org
Francis Bacon describes sweet and fat things as more filling in Sylva sylvarum, experiment 300. archive.org
8
loose materialnouncountable or uncountable
Loose material such as soil, rubble, or debris that occupies a hole, trench, or low area, whether placed there in building work or uncovered by excavation.
Engineers specified compacted fill to support the new roadbed.
The contractor ordered another load of fill for the foundation.
Similarbackfill
Note
What counts as fill depends on use rather than substance. It can be rubble from older buildings, or stripped soil that the Digest of the Decisions of the Corps of Engineers Board of Contract Appeals records being reclassified from waste to fill.

Less common meanings

9
tooth repairverbtransitive
To treat a decayed tooth by packing the cleaned cavity with restorative material.
The dentist filled two molars during the appointment.
Modern practice lets dentists fill cavities without much discomfort.
UsageYou fill a tooth or fill a cavity, usually with a material; the result is a filling.
Similarrestore
10
as much as wantednouncountable or uncountable
As much of something as one needs or desires; enough or more than enough.
After hours of hiking, we ate our fill at the lodge.
She had finally had her fill of the endless complaints.
UsageUsually after a possessive: eat your fill, I've had my fill of complaints.
Note
The idiom covers patience as well as appetite. To have had one's fill of complaints is to want no more of them. With food and drink the sense stays literal: guests eat their fill, and a thirsty walker drinks his fill.
11
block a passageverbtransitive
To block or obstruct a passage or opening by packing it solid.
Silt gradually filled the channel until boats could no longer pass.
Falling debris can fill a culvert and cause flooding upstream.
Similarblock, clog, choke, plug, obstruct
Oppositeclear, unblock
12
musicnouncountable or uncountable
A brief riff, passage, or rhythmic figure played in a gap between melodic phrases to hold the listener's attention.
The guitarist's fill carried the song through the pause between verses.
A tasteful drum fill announced the return of the main riff.
Similarlick, riff, flourish
Note
Musicians nearly always name the instrument that plays it: a drum fill, a bass fill. Fills sit at the seams of a piece, often at the close of a section, and a good one hands the listener back to the melody without drawing attention away from it.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
Zheng edited the proceedings volume. Its chapter “Performing features of piano music adapted from folk songs” is credited to Y. Wang; the description should not be attributed to Zheng as its author. scribd.com
The cited description mentions octave fills among sanda playing methods. en.wiktionary.org
13
soft lightnouncountable or uncountableabbreviationellipsis
Short for fill light: extra light used to lighten shadows in photos or films.
The gaffer dialed back the fill until the shadows looked natural.
A reflector served as the fill on the low-budget shoot.
Note
On set, the second word gets dropped, and crews ask for more or less fill. Its job is to lift the shadows, lowering a scene's contrast to fit what the camera can record so that detail the eye would see is not lost. Anything that does that work counts as fill, whether a lamp or a simple reflector.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
In film production, fill is an ellipsis of fill light. en.wiktionary.org
Fill light lightens shadows and controls contrast. tiffen.reamaze.com
Reducing contrast with fill helps fit scene detail within the recording medium's dynamic range, preserving detail visible to the eye. en.wikipedia.org
A reflector can provide fill instead of a lamp. en.wikipedia.org
14
raised banknouncountable or uncountable
An embankment built, as in railroad construction, to close a hollow or ravine; also, the ground area meant to be filled.
The engineers extended the fill to carry the line over the gorge.
A washout had eaten away part of the railroad fill.
Similarembankment, bank, causeway
Oppositecut, cutting
Note
Railroad builders use the word for the earthwork itself, a raised bank that carries the line across a ravine. Unusually, it also names the hollow before any work is done, so "the fill" can mean either the gap or what closes it, and context decides which. It differs from the material sense by naming a structure rather than a substance.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
A railroad fill is an embankment constructed across a hollow or ravine. en.wiktionary.org
Fill can also name the place intended to be filled before construction. en.wiktionary.org
The embankment sense denotes a structure, whereas the material sense denotes the substance used for filling. en.wikipedia.org
15
verbslang
To ejaculate inside another person or object.
16
verbslang
To bed a woman; to have sexual intercourse with her.
17
noun
The weft yarn in a woven fabric: the crosswise thread carried across the warp.
18
verb
In sailing, to brace a yard around so that its sails catch the wind on their after side.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of fill apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–5, 7, 9, 11

From Middle English fillen, from Old English fyllan ("to fill, replenish, satisfy, fulfill"), from Proto-Germanic *fullijaną ("to make full"), ultimately from *fullaz ("full"). It is related to Dutch vullen, German füllen, Swedish fylla, and Latin plenus ("full").

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

English fill descends from Middle English fillen, from Old English fyllan. en.wiktionary.org
Old English fyllan meant to fill, replenish, satisfy, and fulfill. en.wiktionary.org
The verb descends from Proto-Germanic *fullijaną, meaning to make full. en.wiktionary.org
Proto-Germanic *fullijaną derives from *fullaz, meaning full. en.wiktionary.org
Fill is related to Dutch vullen, German füllen, Swedish fylla, and Latin plenus. en.wiktionary.org
Latin plenus means full. en.wiktionary.org

Meanings 6, 8, 10, 12–14

From Middle English fille, from Old English fyllu, from Proto-Germanic *fullį̄ ("fullness"). It is related to German Fülle.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

The noun fill comes from Middle English fille, which comes from Old English fyllu. en.wiktionary.org
The word ultimately derives from Proto-Germanic *fullį̄, meaning fullness. en.wiktionary.org
Fill is related to German Fülle. en.wiktionary.org