tilling

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of till.

   He spent the morning tilling the heavy clay soil behind the barn.

   Tilling the land each spring keeps the topsoil loose and workable.

   Note

   A form that does double duty. As a participle it builds the progressive (they were tilling the field), and as a gerund it names the work itself (tilling takes all spring). It can take soil as its object or stand alone, and it carries the figurative use as well: tilling the mind, cultivating virtue. Its Old English ancestor, tiliende, was a participle ending in -ende, which Middle English reshaped into -ing.

   The farmers were tilling from dawn until dark.

   She spent those quiet years tilling her mind with history and verse.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The act of cultivating soil by breaking it up and preparing it for crops.

   Spring tilling loosens the earth before the first seeds go in.

   Careful tilling can reduce weeds and improve drainage across the plot.

   Similarplowing, cultivation, tillage, digging

   Note

   The noun has its own pedigree. It comes from Old English tilung, a noun built with -ung, and not from the participle ending behind the verb form. The two converged in Middle English and now look identical. Unlike the gerund, this noun can be counted and made plural. A field can need regular tillings, with each working of the soil treated as a separate event.

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