gill

• WordNet 3.6
  • n gill respiratory organ of aquatic animals that breathe oxygen dissolved in water
  • n gill any of the radiating leaflike spore-producing structures on the underside of the cap of a mushroom or similar fungus
  • n gill a United States liquid unit equal to 4 fluid ounces
  • n gill a British imperial capacity unit (liquid or dry) equal to 5 fluid ounces or 142.066 cubic centimeters
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• Interesting fact: A greenish facial tint has long been associated with illness, as suggested by the phrase "green around the gills." As a person who is very envious is considered by many folks to be unwell, these people have been described as "green (or sick) with envy."
• • n Gill A leech.
  • n Gill A measure of capacity, containing one fourth of a pint.
  • n Gill A two-wheeled frame for transporting timber.
  • n Gill A woody glen; a narrow valley containing a stream.
  • Gill A young woman; a sweetheart; a flirting or wanton girl. "Each Jack with his Gill ."
  • Gill (Anat) An organ for aquatic respiration; a branchia. "Fishes perform respiration under water by the gills ."
  • Gill Malt liquor medicated with ground ivy.
  • Gill (Spinning) One of the combs of closely ranged steel pins which divide the ribbons of flax fiber or wool into fewer parallel filaments.
  • Gill The flesh under or about the chin.
  • Gill (Zoöl) The fleshy flap that hangs below the beak of a fowl; a wattle.
  • Gill (Bot) The ground ivy (Nepeta Glechoma); -- called also gill over the ground, and other like names.
  • Gill (Bot) The radiating, gill-shaped plates forming the under surface of a mushroom.
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• Interesting fact: Octopi and squid have three hearts. Their main systemic heart pumps blood throughout the circulatory system, and two branchial hearts provide some additional push at each of the paired gills.
• • n gill The breathing-organ of any animal that lives in the water.
  • n gill Specifically, an organ in aquatic animals for the aërification of the blood through the medium of water; the respiratory apparatus of any animal that breathes the air which is mixed with water; by extension, a branchia, as of any invertebrate and of the ichthyopsidan vertebrates. See branchiæ. The gills or branchiæ of a fish are a series of vascular arches by which the venous blood is brought in close relation with the water, and thus arterialized. They are situated on each side of the neck, and consist generally of rows of compressed filaments arising from the outer sides of the gill-arches, between which are the gill-slits through which water is poured in respiration to bathe the gills, the set of gills being usually contained in cavities shut in by the gill-covers and communicating with the mouth. There are usually four rows of gills in true fishes, but there may be fewer; in selachians there are generally five pairs; the details of the arrangement are very various. In Amphibia the gills are similar to those of fishes in their situation and general character, but they usually present externally as tufted organs on each side of the neck, and in many cases are caducous, being replaced by lungs. In Mollusca the character of the gills is very different, and their disposition is so variable that they are made a means of establishing many of the orders and subordinate groups of that division of the animal kingdom. In an oyster, for example, the gills are the folds or plaits which lie in layers around a considerable part of the circumference of the animal. (See cuts under Dendronotus, Doris, Lamellibranchiata, and Polyplacophora.) In Crustacea the gills are commonly appendages of some of the legs, very variable in number and situation, as podobranchiæ, pleurobranchiæ, etc. (See epipodite, and cut under Podophthalmia.) Among Insecta gills are filamentous or foliaceous external appendages of the trachea of aquatic insects which breathe in the water. In Arachnida the gills are the external parts of the breathing-organ, each gill consisting of a minute slit covered with a scale; there are two or four of these on the lower side of the abdomen, near the base. In Vermes gills are the respiratory organs, of whatever character, commonly fringing the sides of the body or forming tufts on the head.
  • n gill Some part like or likened to a gill. The wattles or dewlap of a fowl.
  • n gill One of a number of radiating plates on the under side of the cap or pileus of a mushroom.
  • n gill In entomology, the branchiæ or external breathing-organs of certain insectlarvæ.
  • gill To catch (fish) by the gills, as by means of a gill-net: as, gilled fish.
  • gill [In allusion to the parallel rows of filaments in a fish's gills.] In making worsted yarn, to make the fibers level and parallel with each other by drawing them through a gilling-machine.
  • gill To display the gills in swimming with the head partly out of water: as, mackerel go along gilling.
  • n gill A narrow valley; a ravine, especially one with a rapid stream running through it. The word is in common use in the lake district of England: as, Dungeon Gill, Gillin-Grove. In northwestern Yorkshire the valleys are called dales and gills.
  • n gill A corrugation or fold; a hollow, as in a sheet of metal.
  • n gill A frame with a pair of wheels used for conveying timber.
  • n gill Same as gill-frame.
  • n gill A liquid measure, one fourth of a pint in the British and United States systems. The United States gill contains 7.217 cubic inches, equal to 118.35 cubic centimeters. The British imperial gill contains just 5 ounces avoirdupois of distilled water at 62° F., weighed in air under a pressure equal to that of 30 inches of mercury at London, being equal to 142 cubic centimeters or 1.2 United States gills. Until about 1825 the gill was not considered as part of the regular system of English measures of capacity, and there was some want of uniformity in the use of the name. (See the extract from Carew.) In the north of England and parts of Scotland a half-pint was called a gill. The Scotch gill was 1/16 of a Scotch pint, and was therefore about equal to the English gill.
  • n gill A pint of ale.
  • n gill A girl; a sweetheart: used in familiarity or contempt, as either a proper or a common noun.
  • n gill [Short for gill-creep-by-the-ground, or gillrun-over-the-ground, homely names for the plant, in which gill is a familiar application of the feminine name.] The ground-ivy, Nepeta Glechoma.
  • n gill Same as gill-beer.
  • n gill An English penny or quarter bit.
  • n gill A fellow or ‘cove’: as, a queer gill.
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• • n Gill gil one of the breathing organs in fishes and certain other aquatic animals: the flap below the bill of a fowl.
  • n Gill jil a measure=¼ pint
  • n Gill jil a girl, because of the commonness of the name Gillian, cf. 'Jack and Jill:' ground-ivy: beer flavoured with ground-ivy
  • n Gill gil a small ravine, a wooded glen
  • Gill Also Ghyll
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• Ambrose Bierce

  

  “A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man, who has no gills.”

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