filler

plural fillers

1. One who fills.

   They commonly have three, four, five, or six hewers or diggers, to four fillers, so as to keep the fillers always at work.

   1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC

2. Something added to fill a space or add weight or size.

   I recommend this album in the face of the fact that five of the eleven songs are the purest filler, dull instrumentals with a harmonica rifling over an indifferent rhythm section. The rest is magnificent[…]

   1977, Stereo Review, volume 38, page 70

3. Any semisolid substance used to fill gaps, cracks or pores.
4. cosmetic surgeryA dermal filler, a substance injected beneath the skin to restore lost volume.

   A 50-year-old patient will come in, and suddenly, she’s super-skinny and needs filler, which she never needed before.

   2023 January 24, Amy Synnott, quoting Dr. Frank, “Those Weight Loss Drugs May Do a Number on Your Face”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 24 Jan 2023

5. A relatively inert ingredient added to modify physical characteristics; a bulking agent.

   The word "filler" is taboo in the excipient world.

   2014 April, Ken Seufert, “The New Dawn of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: Innovative Solutions for Unprecedented Challenges”, in American Pharmaceutical Review, 17(3):9

6. A short article in a newspaper or magazine.
7. A short piece of music or an announcement between radio or TV programmes.
8. human sciencesAny spoken sound or word used to fill gaps in speech; filled pause.

   'Tis a meer filler; to ſtop a vacancy in the Hexameter, and connect the Preface to the Work of Virgil.

   1697, Virgil, “Dedication”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er.

   2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2013

9. Cut tobacco used to make up the body of a cigar.
10. computingIn COBOL, the description of an unnamed part of a record that contains no data relevant to a given context (normally capitalised when in a data division).
11. agricultureA plant that lacks a distinctive shape and can fill inconvenient spaces around other plants in pots or gardens.
12. plural normallybusinessAny standing tree or standard higher than the surrounding coppice in the form of forest known as "coppice under standards".
13. broadcastingA material of lower cost or quality that is used to fill a certain television time slot or physical medium, such as a music album.

    With the exception of her movie soundtracks — Lady Sings the Blues, and its flashy renditions of Billie Holiday standards, and the much less interesting Mahogany — Ross' early-'70s albums mixed predictably strong hits and an overabundance of filler.

    2004, Christian David Hoard, Nathan Brackett (editors), The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, page 704

plural Fillers · alternative Fillers

1. A surname.