pilled, ppl. a. arch. and dial.
(pɪld)
Forms: α. 4–5 piled, pyled. β. 4–7 pild, 5 pyllyd, pillid, 5– pilled, (6 pyld(e, pylled, pield, 6–7 pilde, pilld).
[f. pill v.1 + -ed1.]
1. Stripped of skin, bark, rind, etc.; decorticated, excoriated: = peeled 4. Obs. or dial.
pilled barley, decorticated, hulled, or pot barley (quot. 1382); but see another sense in b.
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Sam. xvii. 19 Driynge pild barli [Vulg. quasi siccans ptisanas; 1388 with the pile takun a-wey]. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 14 Take pilled garlek and herbys anon. 1573–80 Baret Alv. P 360 Pilled, decorticatus. 1634 Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 21 Some there are that beg more craftily..and..offer pilled rods to passengers, to get a piece of money therewith. 1778 Eng. Gazetteer s.v. Okeley, The poor people..draw pill'd rushes thro' melted grease, to save the expence of candles. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pilled, pared, stripped. |
b. pilled barley, pilled oats, varieties of these cereals in which the grain is free from the husk or glumes; naked barley, naked oats: cf. pilcorn.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens iv. xiii. 467 The seconde kinde may be called in Englishe Pilcorne, or pylde Otes. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 565 Mixt prouander..will be verie good if it be sowne with pilde barley. |
2. Deprived or bereft of hair, feathers, etc.; bald, shaven, tonsured: = peeled 2. Obs. or dial.
| c 1386 Chaucer Reeve's T. 15 As piled as an Ape was his skulle. Ibid. 386 She..smoot the Millere on the pyled skulle [v.rr. piled, pylede, pilede, pilled]. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 22 Euer after, whanne the pie sawe a balled or a pilled man. 1533 J. Heywood Merry Play (1830) 15 A very myschyefe Lyght on the pylde preest. 1611 Coryat Crudities 41 The ostriches..their..legs..are pilled and bare. 1611 Cotgr., Pelé, pild, haireless, bauld. 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 88 A round white pil'd or smooth Chin. 1665 R. Brathwait Comment Two Tales 13 His eyes so effeminately pilled, his shooes artifically carved. 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 198 To make bald or pilled, depilare. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pilled, to be made bald. |
b. Of fibres or fabric: see pill v. 6 c.
† 3. Bare; bare of nap, threadbare; bare of pasture; poor; miserable: = peeled 3. Obs.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 143 One..bad go pisse him with his plouh, pillede [B. for-pyned] screwe! a 1548 Hall Chron., Rich. III 40 Appareled in a pilled blacke cloke. 1556 Withals Dict. (1568) 10 b/2 Pilled or bare (grounde), as vnfertile grounde. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 631 Bloud is a slippery foundation, and pillage a pill'd wall. |
† b. fig. Beggarly, meagre, bald. Obs.
| 1526 Tindale Parable Wicked Mammon (1528) H iij b, The vayne disputyng of them that ascrybe so hye a place in heuen vnto theyr pylde merytes. 1553 Becon Reliques of Rome (1563) 163 A pylde and beggarly ceremony. 1599 B. Jonson Ev. Man out of Hum. i. i, I am no such pild Cinike to beleeue, That beggery is the onely happinesse. 1605 M. Sutcliffe Brief Exam. 58 note, They laugh at this pild prologue that would threape kindnesse upon them. |
4. [f. pill v.1 1.] Plundered, robbed, pillaged: = peeled 1. arch. or dial.
| 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 34 The temples pylled dothe bytterly complayne. 1535 Coverdale Isa. xviii. 2 To a fearful people,..to a desperate and pylled folke. [Cf. peeled 5.] 1611 Cotgr., Pillé, pilled, rauaged, ransacked, robbed, despoyled, or bereaued of all. 1828 Craven Gloss. (ed. 2), Pilled, robbed. |
5. Comb. (from 2), as pilled-pated, pilled-skinned, etc.
| 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 227 b, The pield pated Theodore of Tharsus was a briber and a theefe. 1563 Becon Displ. Popish Mass Wks. iii. 44 That thing which y⊇ pilde⁓pate Priest holdeth vp in his handes. 1576 Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 232 For these..persons are of body ill⁓favoured, leane, dry, lanke, pilde-skinned, and without haire. |
Hence ˈpilledness, baldness, bareness, threadbareness.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. vii. iii. (Bodl. MS.) lf. 48/2 But somme for oþer skallednes oþer pilledness leue and beþ isene alwaye þerafter. 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii. cxvi. 310 Euphorbium..cureth..pyldenesse, causing the heare to renewe and growe againe. 1600 Hakluyt Voy. (1810) III. 211 Some scorned the pildnesse of his [Columbus's] garments. 1656 W. D. tr. Comenius' Gate Lat. Unl. ¶304. 83 Pilledness, baldness, hoaryness, arise from the want of radical moisture. |