bill

Multiple Entries:
  bill    Bill  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bill1

▶noun

• 1 a printed or written statement of the money owed for goods or services.

• 2 a draft of a proposed law presented to parliament for discussion.

• 3 a programme of entertainment at a theatre or cinema.

• 4 N. Amer. a banknote.

• 5 a poster or handbill.

▶verb

• 1 list (a person or event) in a programme.

  ■ (bill someone/thing as) proclaim someone or something as.

• 2 send a bill to.

  ■ charge (a sum of money).

– phrases
fit (or fill) the bill be suitable for a particular purpose.

– derivatives
billable adjective,
billing noun.

– origin ME (denoting a written list or catalogue): from Anglo-Norman Fr. bille, prob. based on med. L. bulla ‘seal, sealed document’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bill2

▶noun

• 1 the beak of a bird, especially when it is slender, flattened, or weak, or belongs to a web-footed bird or a bird of the pigeon family.

  ■ the muzzle of a platypus.

• 2 N. Amer. the peak of a cap.

• 3 the point of an anchor fluke.

• 4 [in place names] a narrow promontory: Portland Bill.

▶verb (of birds, especially doves) stroke bill with bill during courtship.

– phrases
bill and coo informal behave or talk in a loving and sentimental way.

– derivatives
-billed adjective.

– origin OE bile, of unknown origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
bill3

▶noun a medieval weapon like a halberd with a hook instead of a blade.

– origin OE bil, of W. Gmc origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
Bill/bɪl/

▶noun (the Bill or the Old Bill) [treated as sing. or pl.] Brit. informal the police.

– origin 1960s: familiar form of the name William.