Till, prep. [OE. til, Icel. til; akin to Dan. til, Sw. till, OFries.
til, also to AS. til good, excellent, G. ziel end, limit, object, OHG.
zil, Goth. tils, gatils, fit, convenient, and E. till to cultivate. See
Till, v. t.] To; unto; up to; as far as; until; — now used only in
respect to time, but formerly, also, of place, degree, etc., and still
so used in Scotland and in parts of England and Ireland; as, I worked
till four o'clock; I will wait till next week.
He . . . came till an house.
Chaucer.
Women, up till this Cramped under worse than South-sea-isle taboo.
Tennyson.
Similar sentiments will recur to every one familiar with his writings —
all through them till the very end.
Prof. Wilson.
Till now, to the present time. — Till then, to that time.
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Till (?), conj. As far as; up to the place or degree that; especially,
up to the time that; that is, to the time specified in the sentence or
clause following; until.
And said unto them, Occupy till I come.
Luke xix. 13.
Mediate so long till you make some act of prayer to God.
Jer. Taylor.
There was no outbreak till the regiment arrived.
Macaulay.
This use may be explained by supposing an ellipsis of when, or the time
when, the proper conjunction or conjunctive adverb begin when.
Till, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tilled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Tilling.] [OE.
tilen, tilien, AS. tilian, teolian, to aim, strive for, till; akin to
OS. tilian to get, D. telen to propagate, G. zielen to aim, ziel an
end, object, and perhaps also to E. tide, time, from the idea of
something fixed or definite. Cf. Teal, Till, prep..] 1. To plow and
prepare for seed, and to sow, dress, raise crops from, etc., to
cultivate; as, to till the earth, a field, a farm.
No field nolde [would not] tilye.
P. Plowman.
the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground
from whence he was taken.
Gen. iii. 23.