still

Less common meanings

5. 5
   adverb

   Without moving; in a motionless state.

   The children couldn't sit still through the speech.

   Time seemed to stand still.

   UsageComes after posture verbs: sit still, stand still, hold still. Time can stand still too.

   Similarquietly

   Note

   It sits so close to the adjective "motionless" that grammarians disagree over which word stand still contains.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A single photograph, especially one taken on a film set or a frame taken from a film or video, as opposed to moving footage.

   The director picked a single still from the shoot for the festival poster.

   The studio released a few stills from the new film before the trailer came out.

   Similarphotograph, photo, frame, shot

   Note

   A photographer's word defined by what it is not: a still is a photograph as opposed to footage. On a film set, stills are shot while the cameras roll, and still photography names the whole craft beside film. For an image taken from the footage itself, the word narrows to a single frame of the film. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

   • Film-set still photographs are taken during the filming of takes. en.wikipedia.org
7. 7
   not sparklingadjective

   Of a drink, not effervescing or sparkling; flat.

   Most table wines are still rather than sparkling.

   She prefers still water with meals.

   UsageCompare flat: a flat drink has lost its fizz, while still water or wine is meant to have none.

   Similarflat

   Oppositesparkling, fizzy, carbonated, effervescent

   Note

   Here the calm of the "motionless" meaning is carried into a glass: nothing rises through the liquid. It belongs with water and wine, where it stands opposite sparkling. Shortened, still water becomes a noun in its own right. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The drink sense belongs to the same word as the motionless sense. en.wikisource.org
   • Still can stand as a noun meaning still water. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   spirits apparatusnouncountable

   An apparatus for distilling liquids, especially alcoholic spirits, by heating and condensing them; also a place where this is done, a distillery.

   The whisky is made in a traditional pot still.

   Revenue officers smashed the stills they found in the hills.

   Similardistillery

   Note

   A separate word that only looks like the "quiet" one. A distillery's pot still and a moonshiner's homemade rig work on the same principle of heating and condensing. Source

   Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Still meaning a distilling apparatus has a separate origin from still meaning quiet. en.wikisource.org
9. 9
   silencenoununcountable

   A stretch of time marked by calm or silence.

   In the still of the morning every sound carried.

   In the still before the storm, not a leaf moved.

   UsageMostly in the still of the night or the still of the morning. In plain writing, use stillness.

   Similarsilence, quiet, calm, hush, peace

   Oppositenoise, din, commotion

   Note

   The adjective turned into a noun, and its natural home is a phrase: the still of the night. It names a stretch of quiet framed by noise. A 1901 writer heard "an astounding still" between thunder and rain, and in a 1983 song a bird's call breaks it.

10. 10
    make calmverbtransitive

    To make someone or something calm or quiet.

    The music stilled the restless crowd.

    She tried to still her racing heart.

    Similarcalm, quiet, soothe, hush, settle

    Oppositeagitate, stir, excite, disturb

    Note

    The causative of the adjective, from Old English stillan, means to make something quiet or motionless. Its objects range from the sea and crying infants to inner states. In Shakespeare, Talbot's name is enough for mothers to still their babes, and Hawthorne writes of toil that would have stilled "an unquiet impulse." Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The verb is historically formed from the adjective with the meaning to make still. en.wiktionary.org
    • The English verb descends from Old English stillan. en.wiktionary.org
    • Old English stillan had a transitive meaning of making something calm or still. bosworthtoller.com
    • Shakespeare's play describes mothers quieting their babies with Talbot's name. folger.edu
    • Hawthorne wrote of toil that would have stilled an unquiet impulse. gutenberg.org
11. 11
    nounabbreviationellipsis

    Ellipsis of still water, drinking water without bubbles, or a glass or bottle of it.

    The waiter asked whether we wanted still or sparkling.

    Just a glass of still for me, thanks.

    UsageUsually in still or sparkling?, as a waiter asks, or a glass of still.

    Note

    A restaurant clipping that keeps only the adjective: sparkling or still? Only the drinking-water meaning travels with the short form. Still water in the sense of a pond with no current is not what it means.

12. 12
    distill (spirits)verbtransitive

    To distill, by heating something to drive off spirit or by evaporating and condensing it in a cooling vessel.

    The knowledge of stilling is one pretty feat, The waters be wholesome, the charges not great

    1557, Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie

    Similardistill

    Note

    Housekeeping once included it: Thomas Tusser's advice that "the knowledge of stilling is one pretty feat" treats distilling waters as a household skill. It is unrelated to the verb meaning "to calm", though the two are spelled and inflected identically: stills, stilling, stilled. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The verb meaning 'to calm' has a separate etymology. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    dormantadjectivedated

    In botany, dormant or inactive.

    Similardormant, inactive, latent

    Oppositeactive

    Note

    Older botanical writing used the word for life on pause: a still spore neither grows nor dies but waits. If you meet it in an older text, read it as resting rather than motionless. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Older botanical usage employed still to mean dormant, including in the expression still spore. en.wiktionary.org
    • A resting spore can remain alive without germinating until conditions become favorable. agrimyc.slu.se
14. 14
    continuallyadverbarchaic

    Always, invariably, constantly or continually.

    Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion.

    c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”

    I vex my heart with fancies dim: ⁠He still outstript me in the race; ⁠It was but unity of place That made me dream I rank’d with him.

    1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam

    Note

    Older English used the adverb for "always," and the meaning hides in plain sight. Shakespeare's "still wars and lechery" is war without end, and the ambitious man of a 1711 essay "is still afraid" at every turn, not merely so far. Modern readers drift toward the "up to now" sense, so test whether "always" fits. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Older English used the adverb 'still' to mean 'always' or 'continually'; Shakespeare's quotation illustrates this. folger.edu
15. 15
    adjectiveobsolete

    Going on without stopping; constant, continual or unceasing.

    By still practice learn to know thy meaning.

    c. 1588, William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”

    Similarconstant, continual, ongoing, endless, ceaseless

    Note

    A trap for modern readers of Shakespeare: by still practice means by constant practice, not quiet practice. Tennyson can still write of "fruitful hours of still increase" in 1850, meaning increase that never stops. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • 'By still practice' occurs in Shakespeare: Titus speaks the words to Lavinia in Titus Andronicus. folger.edu
    • 'By still practice' means by constant or continual practice. gutenberg.org
    • Tennyson wrote 'fruitful hours of still increase', describing continual increase. en.wikisource.org
    • The Tennyson quotation appeared in a work first published in 1850. en.wikisource.org
16. 16
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To fall in drops, or to let a liquid fall drop by drop; to drip.
17. 17
    noun

    In catering, a large water boiler for making tea and coffee, or the area of a restaurant where tea and coffee are made.
18. 18
    nounslang

    Someone who lives in the Falkland Islands; a Falkland Islander.