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thrill

THRIL/θɹɪl/

Verbthrills, thrilling, thrilled

Noun pluralthrills

9 meanings of thrill

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive or intransitive
    To fill someone with sudden excitement or intense pleasure, as if electrified, or to feel such a sensation oneself.

    Tales of polar expeditions thrill me no matter how often I hear them.

    The crowd was thrilled by the acrobat's daring leap.

    Similarrouse

    Oppositebore

    Note

    Behind the excitement lies a piercing. Old English þȳrlian meant "to pierce," from þȳrel, "hole," and the feeling this verb names is one that runs right through a person. Spenser's cruel word "her tender heart so thrilled" that cold ran through every vein. The verb is ergative: news thrills you, or you thrill at it. The archaic thirl is the same word in another shape.

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    Something that produces a sudden rush of excitement or enjoyment.

    Bungee jumping offered a thrill she had never known.

    There is a certain thrill in opening a brand-new book.

    Similarexcitement, pleasure, delight, rush, kick

  3. 3
    nouncountable
    A trembling or shiver passing through the body, especially one stirred by emotion.

    A thrill of anticipation swept through the audience.

    She felt a sudden thrill as the music swelled.

    Similarshiver, frisson, tingle, tremor, quiver

  4. 4
    verbtransitive or intransitive
    To tremble or quiver, or to cause something to tremble or quiver.

    The organ's low notes seemed to thrill the very walls.

    His hands thrilled with nervous energy before the speech.

    Similarquiver, tremble, vibrate, shake, throb

  5. 5
    nouncountable
    A slight quivering felt over the heart through the chest wall, accompanying a cardiac murmur.

    On examination, the cardiologist detected a thrill at the left sternal border.

    A palpable thrill usually points to significant valve disease.

    Note

    A clinician's word for what the hand feels rather than what the stethoscope hears. Turbulent blood flow sets the chest wall vibrating over the heart. A thrill always accompanies a murmur, and it conventionally marks a murmur graded at least four out of six in intensity. The usual phrasing is a palpable thrill, located by site, such as the left sternal border.

  6. 6
    verbtransitive
    To drill and thread a hole in a single operation, using one tool bit guided by computer-controlled movements.

    The new CNC setup can thrill mounting holes far faster than drilling and tapping separately.

    Operators thrill the aluminum housings on the automated line.

    Note

    A machinist's blend of thread and drill. It was coined on its own and is unrelated to the old piercing verb, even though the two mean much the same thing. A thread-mill bit follows a helical, computer-controlled path that cuts the bore and the internal threads together, so no separate tapping step is needed. Its forms, thrilling and thrilled, look exactly like the everyday ones, so context carries the meaning.

  7. 7
    nouncountable
    A breathing hole or opening, such as a bird's nostril.

    The falcon's thrill widened as it caught the scent of prey.

    Each thrill on the beak lets the bird draw breath.

    Similarnostril, naris

    Note

    Here the word's oldest idea, the hole, survives in a noun. Old English þȳrel meant "hole," and the verb behind the sense of sudden excitement was built on it. A bird's nostril is the typical case. The setting always tells this anatomical noun apart from a shiver of feeling.

Less common meanings

  1. 8
    verbobsolete
    To pierce, bore through, or transfix something with a pointed instrument.
    he perced through his chaufed chest / With thrilling point of deadly yron brand
    1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
    Note

    The literal meaning behind the sense of sudden excitement. Spenser's "thrilling point of deadly yron brand" is a weapon's point that bores through flesh. It is not one that excites. Read older verse with that in mind, because the participle looks modern while the meaning is not. The meaning is obsolete now, so a writer who wants it today would choose pierce, bore or transfix instead.

  2. 9
    verbobsolete
    To hurl, throw, or cast something.

    The warrior could thrill his spear farther than anyone else.

    I'd thrill my jauelin at the Grecian moysture
    1632, Thomas Heywood, The Iron Age

    Similarthrow, hurl, fling, cast, pitch

    Note

    A throwing verb that has dropped out of English entirely. In Thomas Heywood's The Iron Age (1632) a speaker vows to "thrill my javelin at the Grecian moisture", which suits a word descended from Old English þȳrlian, "to pierce". A modern reader hears excitement in it instead, so recognize it in early modern drama but never use it now. Write throw or fling.

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–5, 7–9

From Old English þȳrlian ("to pierce"), derived from þȳrel ("hole"), the source of the archaic English word thirl. It is a doublet of the verb thirl.

Meaning 6

A blend of the verbs thread and drill.