pillar

From Middle English piler, from Old French pilier, from Medieval Latin or Vulgar Latin *pilāre (“a pillar”), from Latin pila (“a pillar, pier, mole”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪlɚ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪlə/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪlə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: pil‧lar

pillar (plural pillars)

1. (architecture) A large post, often used as supporting architecture.
2. Something resembling such a structure.

   a pillar of smoke

3. (figuratively) An essential part of something that provides support.

   He's a pillar of the community.

   • 2016, Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea, spoken by CJ (Christian Mallen):

     Star Trek is one of the pillars of modern entertainment.

4. (Roman Catholicism) A portable ornamental column, formerly carried before a cardinal, as emblematic of his support to the church.
   • a. 1529, John Skelton, a poem:

     two laye-men secular
     eache of theym holdynge a pillar
     In their hondes, steade of a mace

5. The centre of the volta, ring, or manege ground, around which a horse turns.
6. (bodybuilding) The body from the hips over the core to the shoulders.

• column, sile

pillar (third-person singular simple present pillars, present participle pillaring, simple past and past participle pillared)

1. To provide with pillars or added strength as if from pillars.
   • 1910, James Morgan, Blast furnace practice:

     Insufficient penetration, or faulty distribution of the blast, may give rise to "pillaring" — that is, the formation of a pillar or column of cold material extending up through the middle of the hearth

   • 1996, National Academy of Engineering, First annual Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering, page 25:

     We discovered this new class of compounds in our search for a means of generating porosity by pillaring layered double hydroxides

   • 1998, Functional and smart materials, page 226:

     In the pillaring-grafting reaction the dimensionality increases by pillaring the organic or precursory polynuclear metal hydroxyl cations into an inorganic layer structured matrix.

   • 2004, Scott M. Auerbach; Kathleen A. Carrado, Prabir K. Dutta, Handbook of layered materials, page 261:

     It was then that scientists started to create porosity in the interlayer space of layered clays. developing the first pillared clays with pores in the larger microporous region.

• caterpillar

• pillar in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• pillar in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• pillar at OneLook Dictionary Search
• “pillar”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

• Aprill

From French piller. The sense of "grab" is from Italian pigliare, either via direct borrowing or through the mediation of Spanish pillar.

• (Balearic, Central) IPA^(key): /piˈʎa/
• (Valencian) IPA^(key): /piˈʎaɾ/
• Rhymes: -a(ɾ)

pillar (first-person singular present pillo, past participle pillat)

1. (transitive) to pillage, plunder, loot
2. (transitive) to snatch, grab

   Synonyms: agafar, prendre

• pillada
• pillatge

• pillard

• “pillar” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

pillar m (plural pillares)

1. Obsolete spelling of pilar

Probably borrowed from Italian pigliare or French piller. Compare also Portuguese pilhar and English pillage. Doublet of pelar.

• Audio (Colombia)

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• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: pi‧llar

pillar (first-person singular present pillo, first-person singular preterite pillé, past participle pillado)

1. to catch, get, to grab (e.g. grab a cab, get lunch, grab a drink, catch a movie)
2. to pilfer, steal
3. (games) to tag
4. (colloquial) to get (a joke)
5. (colloquial) to catch, to catch up to
6. (colloquial) to catch, to pick up, to bust, to nab (someone doing something illegal)

   Synonyms: atrapar, sorprender

7. (colloquial) to come down with, catch, to pick up (an illness)
8. (colloquial) to pick up on, to take (e.g. information, a hint)
9. (Spain, colloquial) to score (e.g. drugs)
10. (colloquial, reflexive) to jam (your finger)

    Me pillé el dedo con la puerta.

    I jammed my finger in the door.

11. (colloquial, reflexive) to fall in love, to crush on someone

    Creo que se ha pillado de mí.

    I think she may have a crush on me.

• pillo
• pillería
• pilla pilla

• agarrar
• asir

• “pillar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

pillar

1. present tense of pilla.

• prilla