Library / English Dictionary

QUILL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A stiff hollow protective spine on a porcupine or hedgehog

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("quill" is a kind of...):

spine (a sharp rigid animal process or appendage; as a porcupine quill or a ridge on a bone or a ray of a fish fin)

Holonyms ("quill" is a part of...):

Erinaceus europaeus; Erinaceus europeaeus; hedgehog (small nocturnal Old World mammal covered with both hair and protective spines)

hedgehog; porcupine (relatively large rodents with sharp erectile bristles mingled with the fur)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The hollow spine of a feather

Synonyms:

calamus; quill; shaft

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("quill" is a kind of...):

rib (a riblike supporting or strengthening part of an animal or plant)

Holonyms ("quill" is a part of...):

feather; plumage; plume (the light horny waterproof structure forming the external covering of birds)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Any of the larger wing or tail feathers of a bird

Synonyms:

flight feather; pinion; quill; quill feather

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("quill" is a kind of...):

feather; plumage; plume (the light horny waterproof structure forming the external covering of birds)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "quill"):

primary; primary feather; primary quill (one of the main flight feathers projecting along the outer edge of a bird's wing)

tail feather (feather growing from the tail (uropygium) of a bird)

Holonyms ("quill" is a part of...):

wing (a movable organ for flying (one of a pair))

Sense 4

Meaning:

Pen made from a bird's feather

Synonyms:

quill; quill pen

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("quill" is a kind of...):

pen (a writing implement with a point from which ink flows)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The ball of quills might have been a stone for all it moved; the lynx might have been frozen to marble; and old One Eye might have been dead.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He walked as delicately as though all the snow were carpeted with porcupine quills, erect and ready to pierce the soft pads of his feet.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Had the porcupine been entirely unrolled, or had it not discovered its enemy a fraction of a second before the blow was struck, the paw would have escaped unscathed; but a side-flick of the tail sank sharp quills into it as it was withdrawn.

(White Fang, by Jack London)