till

1 of 5

preposition

tᵊl,

təl,

ˈtil

Synonyms of till next

or 'til or less commonly til : until

chiefly Scotland : to

till

2 of 5

conjunction

tᵊl,

təl,

ˈtil

variants or 'til or less commonly til

: until

till

3 of 5

verb

ˈtil

tilled; tilling; tills

transitive verb

: to work by plowing, sowing, and raising crops : cultivate

till

4 of 5

noun (1)

ˈtil

: a money drawer in a store or bank

also : cash register

: a box, drawer, or tray in a receptacle (such as a cabinet or chest) used especially for valuables

: the money contained in a till

: a supply of especially ready money

till

5 of 5

noun (2)

ˈtil

: unstratified glacial drift consisting of clay, sand, gravel, and boulders intermingled

Did you know?

till, 'til, or 'till?

People often ask which is the correct synonym of until: till, ’til, or ’till?

Many assume that till is an abbreviated form of until. Actually, it is a distinctive word that existed in English at least a century before until, both as a preposition meaning “to” and a conjunction meaning “until.” It has seen continuous use in English since the 12th century and is a perfectly legitimate synonym of until.

’Til and ’till are much newer words, having appeared in the language only in the 19th and 20th centuries, respectively. Both are variant spellings, either of until or of till. Writers of usage guides have roundly condemned ’till as a barbarism (apparently because it seems to have added a superfluous l to the end of until). ’Til, for its part, has been deemed inappropriate in formal writing.

To sum up: until and till can be used freely and interchangeably, but you will probably want to avoid ’till and use ’til advisedly.

Example Sentences

Preposition We won't finish till next week. The event doesn't start till tomorrow. Conjunction They kept playing till it got dark. He spun around till he was dizzy. Verb The farmers are tilling the soil. farmers tilling the soil from sunup to sunset See More

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

And then, right around the 60-minute mark, something happens that gives the till-now quite light proceedings an unexpected emotional resonance. —

Peter Debruge, Variety, 3 Sep. 2021 Former El Cajon City Council member Bob McClellan, who served on the park’s JPA board from 1996 through 2020, was regularly asked to have the city put more into the collective till. —

San Diego Union-Tribune, 3 Oct. 2021 His 14-year fiancee is a dancer at the Hot Box Club named Miss Adelaide, played by Danielle Bilderback, who endures his latest scheme to get a fellow gambler, Sky Masterson, played by Andy Crane, to use his till to back the game. —

Philip Potempa, chicagotribune.com, 24 Sep. 2021 But those damn wastrel Republicans keep putting their hands in the till. —

Teresa M. Hanafin, BostonGlobe.com, 5 Nov. 2022 Alone in the fiscal first quarter that ended May 28th, the company burned through half a billion dollars in cash, leaving it with just $200 million in the till. —

Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 19 Aug. 2022 More appropriate is what legendary Chicago columnist Mike Royko suggested as a motto for his city where public officials often had their hands in the till: Ubi est mea? —

Margaret Sullivan, Washington Post, 1 Aug. 2022 This tells me that so long as there is some cash in the till, there will be robberies but with the rewards from robbing banks and businesses falling so armed robbers, like everyone else, will follow the money. —

David G.w. Birch, Forbes, 26 June 2022 A few minutes passed, and Rachael started running the tickets through the till. —

Francesca Street, CNN, 31 May 2022 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'till.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.