: someone or something that fills in
She performed well as the emergency fill-in.
filled in; filling in; fills in
1
: to enrich (something, such as a design) with detail
2
: to give necessary or recently acquired information to
I'll fill you in
: to fill a vacancy usually temporarily
Interns filled in for regular staffers.
Examples of fill-in in a Sentence
Noun
I'm just a fill-in, so I have no idea where office supplies are kept
Verb
my friend quickly filled me in on the portion of the movie that I had missed
she's only filling in while the regular secretary is on vacation
Recent Examples on the Web
Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 6 May 2026
Crow-Armstrong has star power, and Bregman has a bigger name, but Hoerner, who debuted as a late-season fill-in for Javy Báez in 2019, has developed into this era’s Anthony Rizzo, the guy who embodies the organization.
—Jon Greenberg, New York Times, 4 May 2026
Guy Lodge, Variety, 7 May 2026
Finding references to fill in the details was also a challenge.
—Literary Hub, 7 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for fill-in
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Noun
Cable news utility players/ emerging stars $400K-$3M The swing players of cable news — part anchor, part analyst, part fill-in — are paid on trajectory as much as output.
—Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 6 May 2026
Crow-Armstrong has star power, and Bregman has a bigger name, but Hoerner, who debuted as a late-season fill-in for Javy Báez in 2019, has developed into this era’s Anthony Rizzo, the guy who embodies the organization.
—Jon Greenberg, New York Times, 4 May 2026
Verb
Reluctantly hired to fill in for her is Cameron (Lewis Pullman), a scruffy drifter newly blown into town with some unfinished family business to attend to.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 7 May 2026
Finding references to fill in the details was also a challenge.
—Literary Hub, 7 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for fill-in
Cite this Entry
“Fill-in.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fill-in. Accessed 11 May. 2026.
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