sill

1: Sill
2: Lintel

Meaning

Noun

  • (also window sill) breast wall; window breast; horizontal brink which forms the base of a window.
  • threshold; horizontal structural member of a building near ground level on a foundation or pilings, or lying on the ground, and bearing the upright portion of a frame.
  • ridge; rise; horizontal layer of igneous rock between older rock beds.
  • Threshold or brink across the bottom of a canal lock for the gates to shut against.
  • A raised area at the base of the nasal aperture in the skull.
  • The inner edge of the bottom of an embrasure.
  • A young herring.
  • The shaft or thill of a carriage.

Origin

  • From Middle English sille, selle, sulle, from Old English syll, syl, from Proto-Germanic *sulī, from Proto-Indo-European *sel-, *swel-. Cognate with Scots sil, sill, Dutch zulle ("sill"), Low German Sull, Sülle, Danish syld ("base of a framework building"), Swedish syll ("joist, cross-tie"), Norwegian syll, Icelandic syll, sylla. Related also to German Schwelle ( > Danish svelle), Old Norse svill, Latin silva ("wood, forest"), Ancient Greek ὕλη.
  • Compare sile.
  • Compare thill.

Modern English dictionary

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