thrill

• IPA^(key): /θɹɪl/
  • (UK, US) IPA^(key): [θɾ̪̊ɪɫ]
  • (US, Canada) IPA^(key): [θɹ̥ɪɫ]

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  • (Ireland) IPA^(key): [θɾ̪̊ɪl], [t̪ɾ̪̊ɪl]
• Rhymes: -ɪl

From Old English þȳrlian (“to pierce”), derived from þȳrel (“hole”) (archaic English thirl). Doublet of thirl (verb).

thrill (third-person singular simple present thrills, present participle thrilling, simple past and past participle thrilled)

1. (ergative) To suddenly excite someone, or to give someone great pleasure; to (figuratively) electrify; to experience such a sensation.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37:

     The cruel word her tender heart so thrilled, / That sudden cold did run through every vein.

   • 1854, Matthew Arnold, Preface to Poems

     vivid and picturesque turns of expression […] which thrill the reader with a sudden delight

   • 1937, Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline (lyrics and music), “One Song”, in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney:

     One love / That has possessed me; / One love / Thrilling me through

2. (ergative) To (cause something to) tremble or quiver.
3. (obsolete) To perforate by a pointed instrument; to bore; to transfix; to drill.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42:

     he perced through his chaufed chest / With thrilling point of deadly yron brand

4. (obsolete) To hurl; to throw; to cast.
   • 1632, Thomas Heywood, The Iron Age:

     I'd thrill my jauelin at the Grecian moysture

• enthrill

thrill (plural thrills)

1. A trembling or quivering, especially one caused by emotion.
   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

     She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.

2. A cause of sudden excitement; a kick.
3. (medicine) A slight quivering of the heart that accompanies a cardiac murmur.
4. A breathing place or hole; a nostril, as of a bird.

Blend of thread (verb) +‎ drill (verb).

thrill (third-person singular simple present thrills, present participle thrilling, simple past and past participle thrilled)

1. (machining) To drill and thread in one operation, using a tool bit that cuts the hole and the threads in one series of computer-controlled movements.