DRILL, v.t. [G.]

1. A pointed instrument, used for boring holes, particularly in metals and other hard substances. – Moxon.
2. An ape or baboon. – Locke.
3. The act of training soldiers to their duty.
4. A small stream; now called a rill. – Sandys. [Drill is formed on the root of rill, G. rille, a channel.]
5. In husbandry, a row of grain, sowed by a drill-plow.

1. To sow in drills.
2. To flow gently.
3. To muster, for exercise. – Beaum.

1. To pierce with a drill; to perforate by turning a sharp pointed instrument of a particular form; to bore and make a hole by turning an instrument. We say, to drill a hole through a piece of metal, or to drill a cannon.
2. To draw on; to entice; to amuse and put off. She drilled him on to five and fifty. [Not elegant.] – Addison.
3. To draw on from step to step. [Not elegant.] – South.
4. To draw through; to drain; as, waters drilled through a sandy stratum. – Thomson.
5. In a military sense, to teach and train raw soldiers to their duty, by frequent exercise; a common and appropriate use of the word. Hence, to teach by repeated exercise or repetition of acts.
6. In husbandry, to sow grain in rows, drills or channels.

1. To pierce or bore with a drill, or a with a drill; to perforate; as, to drill a hole into a rock; to drill a piece of metal.
2. To practice an exercise or exercises; to train one's self.
3. An instrument with an edged or pointed end used for making holes in hard substances; strictly, a tool that cuts with its end, by revolving, as in drilling metals, or by a succession of blows, as in drilling stone; also, a drill press.
4. To cause to flow in drills or rills or by trickling; to drain by trickling; as, waters drilled through a sandy stratum.
   
   
   [R.] Thomson.
5. To trickle.
   
   
   [Obs. or R.] Sandys.
6. A small trickling stream; a rill.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   Springs through the pleasant meadows pour their drills. Sandys.

7. A large African baboon (Cynocephalus leucophæus).
8. Same as Drilling.
   
   

   Imperial drill, a linen fabric having two threads in the warp and three in the filling.

9. To train in the military art; to exercise diligently, as soldiers, in military evolutions and exercises; hence, to instruct thoroughly in the rudiments of any art or branch of knowledge; to discipline.
   
   

   He [Frederic the Great] drilled his people, as he drilled his grenadiers. Macaulay.

10. The act or exercise of training soldiers in the military art, as in the manual of arms, in the execution of evolutions, and the like; hence, diligent and strict instruction and exercise in the rudiments and methods of any business; a kind or method of military exercises; as, infantry drill; battalion drill; artillery drill.
11. To sow, as seeds, by dribbling them along a furrow or in a row, like a trickling rill of water.
12. To sow in drills.
13. An implement for making holes for sowing seed, and sometimes so formed as to contain seeds and drop them into the hole made.
    
    
    (b)
14. Any exercise, physical or mental, enforced with regularity and by constant repetition; as, a severe drill in Latin grammar.
15. To entice; to allure from step; to decoy; -- with on.
    
    
    [Obs.]

    See drilled him on to five-fifty. Addison.

16. A marine gastropod, of several species, which kills oysters and other bivalves by drilling holes through the shell. The most destructive kind is Urosalpinx cinerea.
    
    

    Bow drill, Breast drill. See under Bow, Breast. -- Cotter drill, or Traverse drill, a machine tool for drilling slots. -- Diamond drill. See under Diamond. -- Drill jig. See under Jig. -- Drill pin, the pin in a lock which enters the hollow stem of the key. - - Drill sergeant (Mil.), a noncommissioned officer whose office it is to instruct soldiers as to their duties, and to train them to military exercises and evolutions. -- Vertical drill, a drill press.

17. To cause to slip or waste away by degrees.
    
    
    [Obs.]

    This accident hath drilled away the whole summer. Swift.