: 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
Michael Silver, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2026
Spurs stay small but survive Luke Kornet functioned well as Wembanyama’s fill-in, producing 14 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks in 30 minutes.
—Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 25 Apr. 2026
David Fear, Rolling Stone, 30 Apr. 2026
Budget material fills in some gaps.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 30 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for fill-in
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Noun
Sensing hesitance as well as incompetence, coaches and players alike tried to sway the flailing fill-ins at every turn.
—Michael Silver, New York Times, 30 Apr. 2026
Spurs stay small but survive Luke Kornet functioned well as Wembanyama’s fill-in, producing 14 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks in 30 minutes.
—Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News, 25 Apr. 2026
Verb
That’s also a long story, which Hokum eventually gets around to filling in the blanks.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 30 Apr. 2026
Budget material fills in some gaps.
—Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 30 Apr. 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 4 May. 2026.
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