Meaning & use
drill
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Meanings
nouncountable
A tool or machine with a rotating bit that makes holes in a surface.
Grammar: Takes a/an: an electric drill.
Patterns
- a drill for something
He used a power drill to put up the shelves.
The dentist's drill made a high whine.
Keep the drill bits in the blue box.
nouncountable
A way of practicing a skill by repeating the same exercise many times.
Grammar: Often used in compounds: a spelling drill, a passing drill.
Patterns
- a drill in something
- a drill for something
The coach ran a passing drill for twenty minutes.
We did a vocabulary drill before the test.
nouncountable
A practice of the steps to follow in an emergency.
Grammar: Often used with fire, safety or evacuation.
Patterns
- a fire drill
- a drill for an emergency
The school holds a fire drill every month.
The crew carried out an emergency drill at sea.
nounsingularinformal
The correct or usual way of doing something, used with the.
Grammar: Used with the: you know the drill.
Patterns
- know the drill
Show your ticket at the gate, then go straight through. You know the drill.
New staff learn the drill within a week.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To make a hole in something using a drill.
Grammar: With an object: drill a hole; with for: drill for oil.
Patterns
- drill a hole in something
- drill into something
- drill for something
Drill a small hole in the wall for the screw.
Engineers are drilling for oil off the coast.
verbtransitive
To teach something by making someone repeat it many times.
Grammar: Often followed by in or into: drill rules into students.
Patterns
- drill someone in something
- drill something into someone
Her father drilled her in her multiplication tables.
The sergeant drilled the new recruits for hours.
Word forms
| third person singular | drills |
|---|---|
| past tense | drilled |
| past participle | drilled |
| -ing form | drilling |
| plural | drills |
Common combinations
- fire drill
- A fire drill interrupted our math lesson.
- power drill
- Be careful with the power drill.
- drill a hole
- He drilled a hole through the plank.
- drill for oil
- The company plans to drill for oil in the bay.
- practice drill
- The team ran a practice drill before the game.
Synonyms and how they differ
- exercise
- Exercise is a general task for practice, while drill suggests strict repetition of one thing.
- practice
- Practice is a broad word for improving through repetition, whereas a drill is one structured activity within it.
- bore
- Bore is the older, more technical verb for making a hole, and is used less in everyday speech.
Word family
- drilling noun
- the act of making holes, or searching for oil
- driller noun
- a person or company that drills holes
- drill bit noun
- the cutting part fitted in a drill
- drillmaster noun
- someone who trains others strictly
Commonly confused: drill or dril?
drill vs dril
This is a misspelling; the correct word has two l's, as in drill.
Practice
The teacher made the class do a ___ so everyone knew how to leave the building safely.
Choose one answer.
A fire drill is a practice of emergency steps. The other options are tools or equipment for making holes.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “drill”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.