Fill v.

Pa. t. and pa. pple. filled. Forms: 1 fyllan, 2 fellen, 3–5 full(e(n, fille(n, (3 felen, 4 south. velle), 4–6 fyll(e, 3– fill. [ME. fullen(ü):—OE. fyllan = OFris. fullia, fella, OS. futtian (Du. vullen), OHG. fullen (MHG. vüllen, Ger. füllen), ON. fylla (Sw. fylla, Da. fylde), Goth. fulljan:—OTeut. *fulljan, f. *fullo- FULL a.]

  I.  To make full.

  1.  To supply with as much as can be held or contained; to put or pour something into (a receptacle) till no more can be received. Also, to fill full. Const. † mid, † of (= OE. genitive), with.

  a.  in material sense.

c. 1000.  Ags. Ps. lxxx[i]. 10. Ontyn þinne muð and ic hine teala fylle!

c. 1160.  Hatton Gosp., Luke xv. 16. Ða ȝe-wilnede he his wambe fellen of þam bean-coddan þe þa swin æten.

c. 1205.  Lay., 20507. Me feolden heom [scipene] mid folke.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1225. A fetles wið water fild.

c. 1320.  Cast. Love, 728.

1393.  Gower, Conf., II. 204.

c. 1440.  Capgrave, Life St. Kath., v. 1962.

1599.  Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. vii. 205.

1645.  Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 10–1. I know that Jesus Christ, who perfumeth and flowereth heaven with his royal presence, and streweth the heaven of heavens to its utmost borders with glory, is commended that he was full of grace, a vessel filled to the lip.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 283.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. 249, Ion. At the tale of pity my eyes are filled with tears, and when I speak of horrors, my hair stands on end and my heart throbs.

1886.  D. C. Murray, Cynic Fortune, vi. The broken, hungry, valiant gentleman … filling his pockets with fairy bank-notes which are only valuable at the Enchange of Fancy, and will pay for Barmecide dinners only.

  b.  in immaterial sense.

a. 1000.  Andreas, 523 (Gr.).

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 117. Þe holi gost com uppen þe apostles and filde ful þat hus þere hie inne seten.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 852 (Cott.). God … fild þis werld al wit his grace.

13[?].  Poems fr. Vernon MS., 71.

c. 1430.  Hymns Virg. (1867), 27. Of grace my þouȝt þou fille.

1471.  Ripley, Comp. Alch., v., in Ashm. (1652), 158.

1561.  Norton & Sackv., Gorboduc, I. i. (1571), A iv/1.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 494.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 522.

1710.  Addison, Tatler, No. 220, 5 Sept., ¶ 1. Having received many Letters filled with compliments and acknowledgments for my late useful discovery of the Political Barometer.

1744.  Warburton, Wks. (1811), XI. 244, note. The public therefore cannot be as impatient for their conviction, as this decipherer is for filling his subscription.

1812.  Southey, Life (1850), III. 338. Surely such a subscription might soon be filled, if his friends think it advisable.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 29. Three more years filled with injuries, and with insults more galling than injuries, were scarcely sufficient to dissolve the ties which bound the Cavalier gentry to the throne.

  c.  Phrases: † To fill the hands of (a Hebraism): to invest with an office. To fill one’s hand (at Poker) (see quot. 1885). To fill one’s pipe: to attain to easy circumstances or wealth (slang).

1535.  Coverdale, Judg. xvii. 5. Micha had a gods house, & made an ouerbody cote, & Idols, and fylled y^e handes of one of his sonnes, y^t he mighte be his prest.

1821.  P. Egan, Tom & Jerry, vi. 84. Such persons, with very few exceptions, have lived just long enough, according to a vulgar phrase, to fill their pipe, and leave others to enjoy it.

1885.  H. Jones, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), XIX. 283/1. The dealer then asks each in rotation who have chipped whether they will fill their hands (i.e., whether they will exchange any cards for an equivalent number from the top of the pack) or play the hand dealt.

  d.  To fill a ship’s bottom (see quot. 1867). To fill the ice (see quot. 1892).

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Filling a ship’s bottom, implies covering the bottom of a ship with broad-headed nails, so as to give her a sheathing of iron.

1892.  J. Kerr, Gloss. Curling Terms, Curling 380. Fill the ice, place stones on the way to the tee.

  e.  Sc. In hand-loom weaving, absol. = to fill the ‘pirns’ or bobbins with yarn, thus making them ready to be placed in the shuttle.

1889.  J. M. Barrie, Window in Thrums, xii. 108. Nanny went to the loom in his place, filling as well as weaving.

  † 2.  To impregnate. Cf. FULL a. Obs.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 48. They desire the Cow at eight months old, but they are not able to fill her till they be two years old.

1645.  Milton, L’Allegro, 22.

  3.  intr. To become full, either in a material or immaterial sense. Of the bosom: = fill out (16 b).

1607.  Shaks., Timon, IV. iii. 244. The one is filling still, neuer compleat.

1685.  Cotton, trans. Montaigne, I. 211. A soul stretches and dilates itself proportionally as it fills.

1713.  Steele, Guardian, No. 171, 26 Sept., ¶ 2. His design is in a few weeks, when the town fills, to put out public advertisements to this effect.

1751.  R. Paltock, P. Wilkins (1884), I. ix. 93. Upon launching my boat I perceived she was very leaky, so I let her fill and continue thus a week or more to stop her cracks.

1803.  J. Davis, Travels in the U.S.A., 251. The adjustment of her dress one would have thought she had learned from some English female of fashion; for she had left it so open before, that the most inattentive eye could not but discover the rise and fall of a bosom just beginning to fill.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., xix.

  † b.  Of a list, etc.: To be filled up. Obs.

1710.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4661/3. The Lottery for two Millions of Florins fills with great Success.

  4.  Naut. a. trans. Of the wind: To cause (the sails) to swell; to distend.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., Epilogue, 12.

1735.  Phil. Trans., XLI. 536. The Sailor concerns himself no farther with the Wind, than as it fills his Sails.

1887.  Bowen, Virg. Æneid, III. 268.

  b.  intr. Of a sail: To become full of wind.

1835.  Marryat, Pirate, i. The topmost studding-sail flapped and fluttered, the foresail shivered, and the jib filled as the frigate rounded to, narrowly missing the wreck.

  c.  trans. To fill the sails: ‘to brace the yards so that the wind strikes the after side of the sails, and advances the ship in her course’ (Smyth).

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, II. 312. Fill the sails.

1847.  Sir J. C. Ross, Voy. S. Seas, II. 168. By backing and filling the sails we endeavoured to avoid collision.

1875.  Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket-bk., x. (ed. 2), 354. Fill the head sails.

  d.  absol.; also to fill away.

1681.  Lond. Gaz., No. 1628/1. In the mean time, the Admiral who had been beaten off, filled and laid them Aboard the second time.

1832.  Marryat, N. Forster, xli. The commodore made the signal to fill.

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxv. 133. Each vessel filled away, and kept on her course.

1860.  G. Balmanno, in Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 369. Thinking there must be room ahead I filled again.

  5.  To stock or store abundantly.

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 196 (Gr.). Tudre fyllað eorðan ælgrene.

1388.  Wyclif, Gen. i. 22. Wexe ȝe, and þe ȝe multiplied, and fille ȝe the watris of the see, and briddis be multiplied on erthe.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 397.

1782.  Cowper, Progr. Err., 480.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 203. Alone among the Irish parliaments of that age, this parliament was filled with Dermots and Geohegans, O’Neils and O’Donovans, Macmahons, Macnamaras, and Macgillicuddies.

1856.  Emerson, Eng. Traits, Ability, Wks. (Bohn), II. 42. The rivers, lakes, and ponds, too much fished, or obstructed by factories, are artificially filled with the eggs of salmon, turbot, and herring.

  6.  To charge or make up with some foreign material; hence, to adulterate.

1887–1890.  [see FILLED ppl. a. 1 b.].

  II.  To occupy completely.

  7.  To occupy the whole capacity or extent of; also, to spread over or throughout, pervade.

a. 1300.  Legends of the Holy Rood (1871), 28. Þe suotnesse þat þer-of com velde al þat lond.

a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 3066. His folke fellis alle þe flode a forelange o brede.

1608–11.  Bp. Hall, Medit. & Vows, I. § 34. The heart of man is a short word, a small substance, scarce enough to give a kite one meal; yet great in capacity; yea, so infinite in desire that the round globe of the world cannot fill the three corners of it.

1646.  P. Bulkeley, Gospel Covt., I. 130. That water which fills the sea, will much more fill a cup; and therefore saith David, when he enjoyed God, My Cup runneth over, Psal. 23.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. iv. § 2. The Idea [which] belongs to Body, whereby we conceive it to fill space.

1768.  Johnson, Lett. to F. A. Barnard, 28 May. The king of Sardinia’s Italian dominions are not large, yet the maps made of them in the reign of Victor fill two Atlantic folios.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 397. In literature she [France] gave law to the world. The fame of her great writers filled Europe.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. ii. 17. I ascended the valley of Hasli, and observed upon the rocks and mountains the action of ancient glaciers which once filled the valley to the height of more than a thousand feet above its present level.

1884.  Bosanquet, trans. Lotze’s Logic, 444. The discussion therefore which fills the XIIth (XIIIth) book of Aristotle’s Metaphysics and of which the purport is to exhibit the absurdity of attributing to the Idea a reality identical with the reality of actually existing things, I cannot regard as a refutation of the pure Platonic doctrine.

1892.  Daily News, 17 Oct., 2/7. Wherever there is sufficient business between the two [towns] to ‘fill’ a wire.

  b.  In immaterial sense: To be all that is contained in.

1890.  J. Martineau, Seat Authority Relig., Pref. 6. The mere resort to testimony for information beyond our province does not fill the meaning of ‘authority.’

  c.  slang. To fill the bill: (a) Theatrical: see quot. 1891. (b) U.S. ‘To do all that is desired, expected, or required; to suit the requirements of the case’ (Cent. Dict.).

1882.  Chicago Tribune, ‘Affable Imbecile’ would about fill the bill for you.

1891.  Farmer, Slang Dict., Fill the bill, to excel in conspicuousness: as a star actor whose name is ‘billed’ to the exclusion of the rest of the company.

  8.  To hold or occupy (a position); to discharge the duties of (an office, place, post, etc.). In to fill a chair, place, seat, etc. with mixture of sense 7. So † To fill the time: to do what is wanted at the time.

c. 1400.  An Apology for Lollard Doctrines, 1. Þe pope … filliþ not in dede, ne in word, þe office of Petir in ȝerþ.

1601.  Shaks., All’s Well that ends Well, I. ii. 69.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 294.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 2 2 March, ¶ 1. He fills the Chair at a Quarter-Session with great Abilities.

1769.  Goldsm., Rom. Hist. (1786). II. 105. This accumulation of titles and employments did not in the least diminish his [Augustus’s] assiduity in filling the duties of each.

1821.  Byron, Juan, IV. xv.

1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 608. Among those ministers Perth, as filling the great place of chancellor, as standing high in the royal favour, as an apostate from the reformed faith, and as the man who had first introduced the thumbscrew into the jurisprudence of his country, was the most detested.

1871.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 216. Stamford, like Lincoln, had been a member of the Danish Confederacy, and, like its allies, it fills a prominent place in the wars of Eadward the Elder and his son Eadmund.

1876.  Gladstone, Homeric Synchr., 49. An analysis was made by Professor Landerer, who fills the Chair of Chemistry at Athens, to establish the fact that the material used was copper.

1885.  Law Times, LXXIX. 4 July, 170/2. Legal member of the India Council, the post which is now filled by Mr. Ilberts.

  9.  a. To occupy or furnish the means of occupying (what is vacant). † To fill the room of: to take the place of.

1562.  Turner, Herbal, II. 67 a. The asshes may fill the rome of spodium.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 235, The Republic, II. Expiations and atonements for sin may be made by sacrifices and amusements which fill a vacant hour, and are equally at the service of the living and the dead.

  b.  To put a person or thing into (a vacant place).

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., III. i. 16.

1868.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. App. 588. The people at large of the vacant diocese claimed a voice in filling the episcopal chair.

  III.  To satisfy; to fulfil, complete.

  10.  To produce a sense of fullness in; to satiate, satisfy, glut; in both material and immaterial sense. Chiefly of a personal agent; occas. of a thing. Const. with.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6842 (Cott.). Þe pour men hunger for to fill. Ibid., 17227 (Cott.). Mi flexsli lust to fill.

1340.  Ayenb., 77. Hi onderstondeþ þet al þe wordle ne is naȝt a guod snode: nor mannes herte to uelle.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 160/1. Fyll wythe mete, sacio.

1485.  Caxton, Paris & Vienna (1868), 31. Coude not be contente ne fylled to beholde hyr fayre loue and frende Parys.

1559.  Mirr. Mag., Dk. Suffolk, xvii.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, I. i. 271. Ape. I, to see meate fill Knaues, and Wine heat fooles.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 360. A Lion … when he is satisfied and filled he layeth aside that savage quality.

1661.  Pepys, Diary, 23 July. I sat before Mrs. Palmer, the King’s mistress, and filled my eyes with her, which much pleased me.

1715.  Cheyne, Philos. Princ. Relig., II. ii. 70. Nothing, by the preceeding Corollary, but the absolute and increated Infinite, can adequatly fill, and super-abundantly satisfy it [the desire].

1821.  Keats, Isabella, ii.

  † b.  intr. To become satisfied or satiated. Obs.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 2392. Sone afterward þey fillede of Leyre.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 547.

  † 11.  To make satisfaction for, atone for (a fault).

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 24700 (Gött.). Suilk fautes mai men fill.

  12.  † a. To carry out in or to its fullness, execute, perform (a command, duty, promise, etc.); to fulfil (a prophecy, etc.). Also to fill forth. Obs.

c. 1000.  Azarias, 42 (Gr.). Fyl nu þa frumspræce.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 917.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 386. Luue fulleð þe lawe.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 1463. Ðat he sulde fillen ðat quede ðat he abraham quilum dede.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 14531 (Cott.).

c. 1340.  Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, 1405. To fylle þe same forwardeȝ þat þay by-fore maden.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 324. Goddis wille is fillid asideli.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 602. But this forward to fille, first ye me sweire.

c. 1500.  Lancelot, 3353. Thai … All redy war to fillyng his command.

1578.  Scot. Poems 16th C., I. 131.

  † b.  To make perfect, accomplish, complete, finish (a work, period of time, ‘one’s days’). Also with inf. as obj. Obs.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 39. Þet seofeðe is cherite, heo fulleð alle þa oðre þing and endeð.

c. 1300.  Havelok, 354.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 34.

1382.  Wyclif, Ex. xxxvi. 8. Alle the wise men in herte maden to fille the werk of the tabernacle. 1388—Jer. li. 63. Whanne thou hast fillid to rede this book, thou shalt bynde to it a stoon, and thou schalt caste it forth in to the myddis of Eufrates.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 1109. To fillyn our fare & our fos harme.

1611.  Bible, Isa. lxv. 20. There shalbe no more thence an infant of dayes, nor an olde man, that hath not filled his dayes: for the childe shall die an hundreth yeeres olde: but the sinner being an hundreth yeres old, shalbe accursed.

  c.  Comm. To execute (a trade order). Also (U.S.), To make up (a prescription).

1866.  Lowell, Lett. (1894), I. 369. I sat down and did what I could to answer (‘fill,’ I think, is the proper word) your order.

1891.  Pall Mall G., 15 Oct., 7/2. In order to fill this one order by a single firm.

1891.  H. Tuckley, Under the Queen, 25. The individual who fills their prescriptions is never spoken of as a ‘druggist,’ but always as a ‘chemist.’

  IV.  With the introduced contents as obj.

  † 13.  To put (wine, etc.) into a vessel with the view of filling it; hence, To pour out. Also, To fill about, out (see 16 c). Obs. exc. arch. (Cf. Ger. füllen.)

c. 1450.  Erle Tolous, 313.

1530.  Palsgr., 549/2. I fyll drinke … Je verse a boyre.

1615.  Markham, The English House-wife, II. i. (1668), 13. For pain in the eyes, take Milk when it comes new from the Cow, and having filled it into a clean vessel, cover it with a pewter dish.

1637.  T. Morton, New Eng. Canaan, III. xiv. 134–5.

1705.  Bosman, Guinea, xiii. 230. Brandy in the Morning and Palm-Wine in the Afternoon are very briskly filled about; so that a rich Negroes Funeral becomes very chargeable.

1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 141, 4 March, ¶ 4. I beg therefore a little Time to give my Opinion on so important a Subject, and desire the young Lady may fill Tea one Week longer, till I have considered whether she shall be removed or not.

[1840.  Fonblanque, Life & Lab. (1874), 318. Let there be well-paid publicans to fill gills of whiskey whether there be customers to swill the liquor or not.]

  absol.  c. 1510.  Robin Hood, I. ‘Fyll of the best wyne’ sayd Robyn.

1594.  Marlowe & Nashe, Dido, I. i.

1611.  Bible, Rev. xviii. 6. In the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double.

1820.  Scott, Ivanhoe, xxi. The soul of Hardicanute hath take possession of him, and he hath no pleasure save to fill, to swill, and to call for more.

  14.  To fill a receptacle with (any material); to put or take a load of (corn, water, etc.) on board a ship. To fill powder (see quot. 1867).

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 13.

1496.  [See FILLER 1.]

1557.  W. Towrson, in Hakluyt, Voy. (1589), 114. Here we filled water, and after set saile.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. xv. 404. Having fill’d our Water, cut our Wood, and got our Ship in a sailing posture, while the blustring hard Winds lasted, we took the first opportunity of a settled gale to sail towards Manila.

1725.  De Foe, New Voy. (1840), 35. Having the long-boat and the shallop, with about six-and-thirty men with them, away they went to fill water.

1797.  Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp., II. 224. Eighteen rounds of powder filled; plenty of wads, forty rounds.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Filling powder, taking gunpowder from the casks to fill cartridges.

  V.  Idiomatically combined with adverbs. (For non-specialized combinations, see the simple senses and the advbs.)

  15.  Fill in.

  a.  trans. To complete (an outline). b. To put in, esp. by speech or in writing, what will occupy a vacancy or vacant place. c. Naut. (see quot.).

1840.  Clough, Amours de Voy., III. 178.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Filling-in, the replacing a ship’s vacant planks opened for ventilation, when preparing her, from ordinary, for sea.

1878.  Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 269. The outline is commanding, imperial, heroic; and there is no detail with which our materials enable us to fill it in at all, which is not in perfect harmony with the whole.

1883.  The Saturday Review, LVI. 8 Sept., 302/1. French people ‘may be pleasant enough to talk to; but when you come to the realities of life ——’ The aposiopesis is seldom filled in, and is perhaps more eloquent than speech.

1893.  Sir J. W. Chitty, in Law Times’ Rep., LXVIII. 430/1. He had left the date blank for the plaintiff to fill in.

  16.  Fill out.

  a.  trans. To enlarge or extend to the desired limit. Cf. 4.

1670.  Dryden, The Conquest of Granada, I. III. i.

1707.  Norris, Treat. Humility, vi. 278. They may not carry such an amusing shew of Learning, nor so fill out the Sails of our Reputation in the World.

  b.  intr. To become distended, or rounded in outline.

1851.  Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 360. As each set of muscles is relaxed, the veins that were compressed by it fill out again, to be again compressed by a renewal of the force.

1888.  Illustr. Sport. & Dram. News, 21 Jan., 511/1. Merry Hampton [horse] is thickening and filling out.

  c.  trans. To pour out (wine, etc.). Cf. 13.

1602.  Marston, Ant. & Mel., II. Wks. 1856, I. 28.

1749.  Fielding, Tom Jones, VIII. v. Jones then filling out a glass of wine, drank his health by the apellation of doctissime tonsorum.

1864.  G. Dyce, Bella Donna, II. 145. The tea was filled out and getting cold.

  d.  = Fill up (see 17 g).

1880.  [see FILLED ppl. a. 2].

  17.  Fill up.

  ‘Up is often used without much addition to the force of the verb’ (J.).

  a.  trans. To fill to repletion. b. To complete the process of filling; to fill the vacant parts or places in (anything); to supply the deficiencies in.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., IV. iii. 62.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 432, 16 July, ¶ 11. When you want a Trifle to fill up a Paper.

1780.  A. McDougall, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), III. 136. They have passed very decisive laws for filling up their regiments for the war.

1803.  Scott, Bonnie Dundee.

1824–9.  Landor, Imag. Conv., Wks. 1846, II. 209/2. The less that people talk about God, the better. He has left us a design to fill up.

1891.  S. C. Scrivener, Our Fields & Cities, 72. These people could fill up their time at agriculture, for the proper carrying on of which there are not half enough men in the country districts.

  c.  To supply (a deficiency, a vacancy); to provide an occupant for (a vacant post).

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., IV. ii. 35. Such haue I to fill vp the roomes of them that haue bought out their seruices.

1611.  Bible, Col. i. 24. Who now reioyce in my sufferings for you, and fill vp that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his bodies sake, which is the Church.

1694.  F. Bragge, Practical Discourses upon the Parables of Our Blessed Saviour, v. 181. A numerous Progeny to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, and fill up the Vacancies left by the Fall of the rebellious Angels.

1891.  Law Times, XC. 419/2. Within a few weeks he has had to fill up two High Court judgeships, a County Court judgeship, a mastership in lunacy, and a registrarship in bankruptcy.

  † d.  To come up to the measure of; to equal.

1588.  Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, V. ii. 193. How many inches doth fill vp one mile?

  † e.  To complete the measure of. Obs.

1611.  Bible, 1 Thess. ii. 16. Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway.

1642.  Chauncy, in Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, II. (1856), 396. God sometims hids a sinner till his wickednes is filled up.

  † f.  To fulfil, satisfy. Obs.

1596.  Shaks., Merch. V., IV. i. 160. Comes with him at my importunity, to fill vp your Graces request in my sted.

  g.  To write what is requisite in the blank space or spaces of a cheque, form, etc. Cf. 15 b.

1802.  Ld. Eldon, in Vesey’s Reports, VII. 78. A blank, left for the name of the person … was not filled up.

1885.  Act 48 Vict., c. 15 Sched. II. Forms, Part ii. Form (A), You are hereby required to fill up accurately the under-written form.

1885.  Manch. Exam., 3 June, 4/7. One of them [cheques] he filled up for £1,000.

  h.  To stop up; to do away with (a hole) by filling.

1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. ii. 116. To fill the mouth of deepe Defiance vp. Ibid. (1611), Wint. T., V. iii. 101. Ile fill your Graue vp.

1818.  Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), III. 96. A commoner cannot fill up rabbit burrows made by the lord in the common; but if his rights are injured by them, his remedy is by action.

Mod.  There was a pond here, but it has been filled up.

  i.  intr. ‘To grow full’ (J.) Of (the bed of) a sea: To silt up.

1695.  Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth, I. (1702), 49. Neither the Palus Mœotis, nor the Euxine, nor any other Seas, fill up, or by degrees grow shallower.

  VI.  18. Comb. The vb.-stem is prefixed to various sbs., forming sbs. with the sense ‘he who or that which fills something,’ as fill-basket, a name applied by gardeners to certain large or prolific kinds of peas, potatoes, etc.; fill-belly, a glutton; fill-(the)-dike, -ditch a., epithets of the month February; † fill-knag, ? a drunkard; fill-paunch (see quot.); fill-pot, ? a tippler; fill-sack, fill-space (see quots.); † fill-square (Geom.), one of the complements of a square.

1881.  Oxfordsh. Gloss., Suppl., *Fill basket, a large kind of pea.

1553.  Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 49*. They are *fylbellyes and Epicures.

1611.  Cotgr., Wee call it [February]. *Fill-dike.

1879.  Jefferies, Wild Life in a Southern County, 314. In February *‘fill-ditch,’ as the old folk call it, on account of the rains.

a. 1605.  Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 790. Buttrie bag, *fill knag! thou will rag with thy fellows.

1659.  Torriano, Tira-pancia, a stretch-gut, a gulch-bellie, a *fill-panch.

1609.  Ev. Woman in Hum., I. i., in Bullen, O. Pl., IV. 315. Host. There, my fine *fil-pots; give the word as you passe.

a. 1635.  Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia (Arb.), 55. Sir Richard Sackvil, or the people then called him, *Fill-sack, by reason of his great wealth.

1827.  Lamb, Lett. (1888), II. 194. The artist (who had clapt in Miss merely as a *fill-space) swore I exprest his full meaning.

1551.  Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., I. xvi. When there are more then one [square] made about one bias line, the *filsquares of euery of them muste needes be equall.