thrill

present singular third person thrills · participle present thrilling · participle past thrilled · past thrilled

1. ergativeTo suddenly excite someone, or to give someone great pleasure; to (figuratively) electrify; to experience such a sensation.

   1854, Matthew Arnold, Preface to Poems vivid and picturesque turns of expression […] which thrill the reader with a sudden delight

   2 more examples

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

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37

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

   1937, Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, “One Song”, in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney

   Synonyms: rouse

2. ergativeTo (cause something to) tremble or quiver.
3. obsoleteTo perforate by a pointed instrument; to bore; to transfix; to drill.

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

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 42

4. obsoleteTo hurl; to throw; to cast.

   I'd thrill my jauelin at the Grecian moysture

   1632, Thomas Heywood, The Iron Age

   Synonyms: fling, bung, cast, chuck, chunk, cook, dash, dump

plural thrills

1. A trembling or quivering, especially one caused by emotion; a frisson.

   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.

   1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court

2. figurativelyA cause of sudden excitement; a kick.

   The thrill is gone / Gone, gone for me / I still live on, lonely though I'll be

   1951, Roy Hawkins, Rick Darnell, “The Thrill Is Gone”

3. medicineA slight quivering of the heart that accompanies a cardiac murmur.
4. A breathing place or hole; a nostril, as of a bird.

present singular third person thrills · participle present thrilling · participle past thrilled · past thrilled

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