Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An apparatus for distilling liquids, such as alcohols, consisting of a vessel in which the substance is vaporized by heat and a cooling device in which the vapor is condensed.
  • noun A distillery.
  • adjective Not moving or in motion.
  • adjective Free from disturbance, agitation, or commotion.
  • adjective Of or relating to a single or static photograph as opposed to a movie.
  • adjective Making or characterized by no sound or faint sound: synonym: quiet.
  • adjective Not carbonated; lacking effervescence.
  • noun Silence; quiet.
  • noun A still photograph, especially one taken from a scene of a movie and used for promotional purposes.
  • noun A still-life picture.
  • adverb Without movement; motionlessly.
  • adverb At the present time; for the present.
  • adverb Up to or at a specified time; yet.
  • adverb At a future time; eventually.
  • adverb In increasing amount or degree; even.
  • adverb In addition; besides.
  • adverb All the same; nevertheless.
  • intransitive verb To make motionless or unagitated.
  • intransitive verb To make quiet; silence.
  • intransitive verb To allay or calm.
  • intransitive verb To become still.
  • idiom Informal (still and all) After taking everything into consideration; nevertheless; however.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To drop; fall in drops. See distil.
  • To drop, or cause to fall in drops.
  • To expel, as spirit from liquor, by heat and condense in a refrigerator; distil. See distil.
  • noun An apparatus for separating, by means of heat, volatile matters from substances containing them, and recondensing them into the liquid form.
  • noun A house or works in which liquors are distilled; a distillery.
  • noun In bleaching, a rectangular vessel made of slabs of freestone or flagstone with rabbeted and stemmed joints held together by long bolts, and provided with a steam-chamber below, and with a manhole for introducing the materials for making chlorid of manganese solution, called still-liquor.
  • Remaining in place; remaining at rest; motionless; quiet: as, to stand, sit, or lie still.
  • Calm; tranquil; peaceful; undisturbed or unruffled: as, still waters run deep; a still night.
  • Silent; quiet; calm; noiseless; hushed.
  • Soft; low; subdued: as, a still small voice.
  • Not sparkling or effervescing: said of wine, mineral water, and other beverages: contrasted with sparkling; by extension, having but little effervescence.
  • Continual; constant.
  • noun Calm; silence; freedom from noise.
  • noun A still alarm.
  • Quietly; silently; softly; peacefully.
  • Constantly; continually; habitually; always; ever.
  • Now as in the past; till now; to this time; now as then or as before; yet: as, he is still here.
  • In an increased or increasing degree; beyond this (or that); even yet; in excess: used with comparatives or to form a comparative: as, still greater things were expected; still more numerous.
  • For all that; all the same; nevertheless; notwithstanding this (or that).
  • See loud.
  • noun The wrought-iron still in which either coal-tar or wood-tar is in the crude state submitted to fractional distillation in order to separate the various useful products obtainable.
  • To make still; cause to be at rest; render calm, quiet, unruffled, or undisturbed; check or restrain; make peaceful or tranquil; quiet.
  • To calm; appease; quiet or allay, as commotion, tumult, agitation, or excitement.
  • To silence; quiet.
  • Synonyms and To lull, pacify, tranquilize, smooth.
  • To hush.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English stillen, to distill, from distillen; see distill.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English stille; see stel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English stillan

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Via Middle English, ultimately from Latin stilla

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Aphetic form of distil, or from Latin stillare.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English stille ("motionless, stationary"), from Old English stille ("still, quiet, calm; without motion, at rest, not moving from a place, not disturbed; moving little or gently; silent; not loud; secret; unchanging, undisturbed, stable, fixed; not vehement, gentle"), from Proto-Germanic *stillijaz (“quiet, still”), from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stell; fixed, motionless, still, stiff”). Cognate with Scots stil ("still"), West Frisian stil ("quiet, still"), Dutch stil ("quiet, silent, still"), Low German still ("quiet, still"), German still ("still, quiet, tranquil, silent"), Swedish stilla ("quiet, silent, peaceful"), Icelandic stilltur ("set, quiet, calm, still"). Related to stall.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "I see you averting your glances

    I see you cheering on the war

    I see you ignoring your children

    And I love you still"

    January 10, 2007

  • In moonshining, the combination of the cap and boiler in which the mash is initially distilled. "Still" is also used to describe the entire distilling setup.

    August 26, 2009