Now dial. or arch. Forms: 4–6 tril(le, tryl(le, 6 tryll, 6– trill. [ME. trille: cf. Sw. and Norw. trilla, Da. trilde, trille, to roll, trundle, wheel; also EFris. trullen, trüllen to roll, turn round. See also TIRL v.3]
1. trans. To turn (a thing) round, to cause to revolve or rotate; = TIRL v.3 1. = a. To twirl, twiddle, whirl, spin.
To trill the bones (slang): to throw the dice with a spinning motion; cf. ‘whirl the bones,’ BONE sb. 5 a.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Sqr.’s T., 308. But whan yow list to ryden any where Ye mooten trille [v.r. trylle] a pyn stant in his [the brazen horse’s] ere. Ibid., 313. And whan ye come ther as yow list abyde, Bidde hym descende, and trille [v.rr. tryl, -le, tril] another pyn.
1530. Palsgr., 762/1. I tryll a whirlygyg rounde aboute, je pirouette.… I tryll, je jecte.
1547. Salesbury, Welsh Dict., Troi whirligwgan, tryll a whyrlygyg.
c. 1550. R. Wever, Lusty Juventus, D iij. I wyll trill the bones while I haue one grote.
1570. Levins, Manip., 123/43. To Tril, circumuertere.
1616. J. Lane, Cont. Sqr.’s T., IV. 417. So taught her how to trill the pinn in th’eare, Which th’horse, at willes quicke call, heard anie wheare.
1873. Williams & Jones, Somerset. Gloss., Trill, to twirl.
1885. Burton, Arab. Nts. (1887), III. 141. Thereupon the Prince trilled the pin.
b. To roll, bowl, trundle (a ball, a hoop, etc.); to move (a thing) on wheels or castors. Also fig.
1408. Clifton, trans. Vegetius’ De Re Milit., IV. xvii. (MS. Digby 233, lf. 220 b/2). Þese toures mot haue crafty whelus Imaad to trille hem liȝtliche to þe walles.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 502/2. Tryllyn, or trollyn, volvo, Cath.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 42 b. Eris … had trilled along the table a golden apple.
c. 1572. Gascoigne, Fruites Warre, lxvii. As fortune trilles the ball.
1642. Howell, For. Trav. (Arb.), 29. As wise as he, who carried the coach-wheele upon his back, when he might have trilled it before him all along. Ibid. (1650), Giraffi’s Rev. Naples, I. 91. The huge concourse of people … which were so thick, that one might have trill’d a bal upon their heads.
1673–4. Allestree, Lett., 7 Jan., in Fox Bourne, Locke (1876), I. vi. 321. I had acknowledged the receipt of yours … long since, had I not been trilled on in a constant expectation of being [etc.].
1905. in Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v., (E. Kent) There now, let me see how nicely you can trill your hoop.
† 2. intr. Of a wheel, ball, etc.: To revolve, spin, roll, trundle. Obs.
1531. Elyot, Gov., I. xxvii. If it [tennis-ball] trille fast on the grounde.
1681. Rycaut, trans. Gracian’s Critick, 142. Sometimes it [the ball] was tossed so high, that it was out of sight, anon so low … it bounded and trilled on the ground.
Hence Trilling vbl. sb.
c. 1410. Love, Bonavent. Mirr., xviii. (1908), 112. As we mowe see alday many men and wommen berynge bedes with trillynge on the fyngres and waggynge the lippes, bot the siȝt caste to vanytees.
