pilcher, a pilchard. Beaumont and Fl., Wit without Money, iii. 4. 1; Beggar’s Bush, iv. 1 (Clause).
pilcher, a scabbard. Romeo, iii. 1. 84. Not found elsewhere.
pilcrow, a name for the paragraph-mark, printed as ¶. Tusser, Husbandry, p. 2; spelt peel-crow, Beaumont and Fl., Nice Valour, v. 1 (Lapet); ‘Pilcrow, paragraphus’, Coles, Lat. Dict.; ‘Paragraphe, Pillcrow’, Cotgrave. Cp. ME. pylcraft in a boke, ‘Asteriscus, Paragraphus’ (Prompt.); pargrafte, paragraphus (Ortus Voc.). See Notes on Eng. Etym., s.v.
pile, the metal head of an arrow. Drayton, Pol. xxvii. 337; head of a dart, Chapman, tr. of Iliad, iv. 139; a Roman javelin, Dryden, Hind and Panther, bk. ii, 161. L. pilum, the heavy javelin of the Roman foot-soldier.
pile, a small castle; ‘A little pretie pile or castle’, Udall, tr. of Apoph., Antigonus, § 27; ‘Certayne pylys and other strengthis’, Fabyan, Chron., Pt. VII, fol. cxxxvii; repr. (1811), p. 512, l. 16. ME. pile, a stronghold (P. Plowman, C. xxii. 366). See NED. (s.v. Pile, sb.2).
pill, to plunder, spoil, to commit depredation. Richard II, ii. 1. 246; Richard III, i. 3. 159; to pill and poll, Mirror for Mag. 467 (Nares).
pilling, plunder, spoliation. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 445. Pilling and polling, J. Harrington, Prerog. Pop. Govt., ii. 2 (ed. 1700, p. 332). See [poll].
pill, to strip. Merch. Ven. i. 3. 85; Lucrece, 1167. In common prov. use in the sense of peeling, stripping off the outer skin, the rind or bark, see EDD. (s.v. Pill, vb.1 1).
pillowbeer, a pillow-case. Locrine, iv. 4. 6; Middleton, Women beware Women, iv. 2 (Sordido). ME. pilwe-beer (Chaucer, C. T. A. 694); bere, a pillow-case (Boke Duchesse, 254).
pimp-whiskin, a pimp. Ford, Fancies Chaste and Noble, i. 2 (Spadone). See [whiskin].