Forms: 5–6 tylle, 6 tille, 6–7 tyl1, 7 til, 6– till. [Origin obscure.]
† 1. A small box, casket, or closed compartment, contained within or forming part of a larger box, chest, or cabinet; sometimes one that could be lifted out, sometimes a drawer in a cabinet or chest of drawers; used for keeping valuables, documents, etc., more safely. Obs. except as in 2.
1452. in Munimenta Academica (Rolls), II. 653. Prout patet in scriptis indenturis positis in ‘le tylle’ in studio meo Oxoniæ.
1530. Palsgr., 281/1. Tyll in a chest, chettron.
1534. Inv. Wardr. Kath. Arragon, in Camden Misc. (1855), 40. One cofar … having foure tilles therin, the fore fronte of every of them gilte.
1547–53. Sir R. Sadler, List, in 30th Rep. Dep. Kpr. Publ. Rec. (1869), 224. Bagges of Bokes, Lettres, and other Writenges remayneng in the study at Westminster, and in several tilles within the same.
1549. in Palgrave, Anc. Kal. & Inv. Excheq. (1836), III. 417. Which lettres patentes do lye in the nethermost tyll under the tyll wheron is written in text hand Acquietauncies.
1561. in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz. (1823), I. 118. By Anthony Anthony a corbonett fall [full] of tylls.
1591. Percival, Sp. Dict., Carxn de arca, the till of a chest, loculus.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Confess., i. Within my heart I made Closets; and in the many a chest;… In those chests, boxes; in each box, a till.
1651. Davenant, Gondibert, III. I. liv. A spacious cabinet, with all things fraught.., she by degrees Lifts every till, does every drawer draw.
1664. Pepys, Diary, 8 Jan. Going to his secret till in his desk, wherein the key of his cash-chest lay.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. 229. When I came to the Till in the Chests, I found there three great Bags of Pieces of Eight.
1737. [S. Berington], G de Lucca’s Mem. (1738), 13. Two little Cabinets … full of intricate Drawers or Tills.
2. Now spec. A drawer, money-box, or similar receptacle under and behind the counter of a shop or bank, in which cash for daily transactions is temporarily kept.
1698. Lond. Gaz., No. 3363/4. Lost out of Mr. Wray’s Shop in Little-Britain, a Til.
1762. Jackson’s Oxford Jrnl., 25 Dec., 2/3. Under Pretence of buying some small Beer, one of them [a Gang of young Villians], not exceeding seven Years of Age, crept behind the Compter, and stole away the till with all the Money in it.
1801. Mar. Edgeworth, Contrast, v. James swept some loose money off the counter into the till.
1866. Crump, Banking, i. 31. All the money … excepting what must be kept in the ‘till’ for immediate use.
1908. Times, 22 April, 5/5. Officers … suspected they had contemplated robbing the tills.
fig. 1886. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 242. There is generally a race to see who shall first tap nature’s till [i.e., strike oil].
3. Printing. Each of the spaces or cells between the ribbed projections of the platen of a hand printing-press, in which the pressman keeps various small requisites.
1888. Jacobi, Printers’ Vocab., 141. Tills, the cell-like divisions in the top side of the platen of a hand printing press.
4. attrib. and Comb. (from 2), as till-lock, -money, -robber, -robbing; till-alarm, a device by which a bell is automatically rung when the till is opened; till-box = sense 1; till-tapping, pilfering from a till; so till-tapper.
1692. Lond. Gaz., No. 2756/4. Stolen … a Till-box with some Money in it.
1737. Salmon’s Country Builder’s Estimator (ed. 2), 110. Cabinet Locks, Till Locks, and Scrutoire Locks.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exh., Brit., II. No. 5152. Ticket, receipt, and till protector.
1877. Knight, Dict. Mech., Till-alarm.
1891. Daily News, 3 Feb., 2/4. Part of their reserves … being necessary ‘till-money’ for daily transactions in small change.
1893. Columbus (Ohio) Disp., 14 Nov. For some time the firm has been a loser by persistent till-tapping…. The camera lens closed automatically with the photographs of the till tappers.
1895. Snaith, D. Marvin, xxvii. Pete declared it [the money stolen] was a month’s till money.
