pilly

comparative pillier · superlative pilliest

1. Covered in pills (particles created by mechanical wear).

   After many washings, my favorite sweater is faded and pilly.

   4 more examples

   I gave the superintendent a deposit and I got a room on the third floor with a bed that had sheets and a pilly blanket and a pillow so flat you had to fold it over to rest your head on it.

   2009, Allegra Goodman, Paradise Park, page 21

   One was a young woman with stringy brown hair, a pilly black sweater and fabulous boots of parti-coloured suede.

   2015, Padma Viswanathan, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao

   So many stuffed animals. Most were pristine—their fur shiny and smooth, barely a nap on them—except for two worn creatures: a round turtle with a pilly knit shell and a brown bear with a round head and a flat body that looked like someone had literally squeezed the stuffing out of it..

   2017, R. J. Noonan, Where the Lost Girls Go

   Resuming her walk, she takes out her phone. Pulls up pictures of his sketches: a battered shoebox beneath a car, a cat beside the shoebox, one eye open. A pilly sweater, one arm still crossed over a pile of cash.

   2020, Brian Selfon, The Nightworkers

2. Characterized by or involving many pills.

   Paiuline Eichstadt spent a week at home womewhat indisposed with Eddie as doctor and nursemaid. A pilly and puny vacation he spent.

   1954, The Louisville & Nashville Employes' Magazine - Volume 30, page 62

plural pillies

1. informalPill.

   Let's tak a little pilly here...I, I need it.

   2022, Andy Warhol, a: A Novel

   1 more example

   Billy Willy is a dilly, He took a pilly And turned silly

   1981, Vardine Moore, The Pleasure of Poetry with and by Children, page 118

2. informalA pillhead.
3. informalThe lilly-pilly.

   Withdrawing the smaller blade from his belt, Speezer rolled a pilly pod from the tray and sliced it open With his sharp knife.

   2001, Mark Harris, The Amazing Adventure in Tovia, page 59

4. informalPilchard.

   When buying pillies look for IQF fish.

   2007, Paul Worsteling, Jack Crowley, Fishing Western Port, page 18

   1 more example

   I prefer to have a range of thee different sizes and colours in squid jigs, but you could also try using squid fish spikes and put a pilly on it.

   2011, Gary Brown, How to Catch Australia's Favourite Saltwater Fish, page 62

5. informalOne who rides pillion.

   I attended quite a few other social-group events, made new friends, registered with other motorcycle groups as a pillion, and got out on a few rides. I was really enjoying the riding but sometimes felt frustrated if nobody was available to take a 'pilly' out.

   2021, Tracy-lee Adams, The Dunce

plural pillies

1. Scotlandpillow

   Her head it rests upon a pilly And she is not so very silly

   1914, Lachlan Macbean, Pet Marjorie, page 31

   2 more examples

   Kattie! There's another coming. Another mattress and a pilly. Where can we put him?

   1873 November 29, “A London Pilgrimage among the Boarding-Houses. V. A Merchant Captain's Roost.”, in Charles Dickens, Jr., editor, All the Year Round, A Weekly Journal (New Series), volume XIpage=110, column 2, London: […] Chapman & Hall, […], published 1874

   She will have to dig a mattress and a pilly from the stair-well.

   1876, Lewis Strange Wingfield, Slippery ground - Volume 2, page 147