pilling

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Small balls of fiber that form on the surface of clothing through repeated use and wear, also called pills.

   Pilling appeared along the cuffs where the fabric rubbed against the desk.

   Cheaper acrylic blends are prone to pilling after repeated laundering.

   Note

   A word for the condition as much as for the balls. Fabric shows pilling, is prone to pilling, or develops it along cuffs and edges where it rubs. Each ball taken singly is usually just a pill, so pills on a sweater and pilling on a sweater describe the same wear counted two ways. When a plural is wanted, it is pillings.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of pill.

   The wool blanket started pilling along its edges within a month.

   Cheap fleece tends to begin pilling after only a few wears.

   Note

   In fabric talk the verb is intransitive: a sweater is pilling, but nobody is pilling it. The same form also serves pill's other verbs. It can mean dosing someone with pills, persuading someone in online usage, or blackballing a club candidate in dated British slang. An obsolete sense meant peeling. Spelled identically, the noun names the fiber balls themselves.

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