tilled

1. 1
   adjective

   Plowed or cultivated, as soil or land prepared for growing crops.

   The tilled acres held moisture far better than the hardened ground beside them.

   She walked across the tilled rows, checking the depth of the furrows.

   Similarplowed, cultivated, worked

   Oppositeuntilled, uncultivated, unplowed, virgin

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of till.

   She tilled the fields steadily through the long, dry season.

   The land was tilled by hand for generations before any machine arrived.

   Note

   Only the farming verb produces this form. The preposition till, meaning "until," has no past, so tilled always belongs to cultivation. That is usually cultivation of soil, but the verb also tills the mind, knowledge or virtue, and it can stand without an object (they tilled all spring). An obsolete sense, "to prepare; to get," belongs to older English only.

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