lil

• IPA^(key): /lɪl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl
• Homophone: Lil

lil

1. Alternative form of li'l

lil (plural lils)

1. (gypsy slang, obsolete) A book.
   • 1851, George Borrow, Lavengro: The Scholar-The Gypsy-The Priest:

     [H]e'll have quite enough to do in writing his own lils, and telling the world how handsome and clever he was; and who can blame him? Not I. If I could write lils, every word should be about myself and my own tacho Rommanis — my own lawful wedded wife, which is the same thing.

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

• ill, Ill., ILL, 'ill, I'll

• (Western) IPA^(key): /ˈlil/

lil

1. to look like, appear

• 2007. The UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Department of Linguistics.

• IPA^(key): [ˈlɪl]

lil

1. masculine singular past active participle of lít

lil f (genitive singular lile, nominative plural lile)

1. (obsolete) Alternative form of lile (“lily”)

lil

1. far

From Arabic لِ (li). The final -l may be due to backformation from the personal forms, themselves derived by reduplication. Compare Moroccan Arabic ليل (līl, “for”), North Levantine Arabic لإلي (laʔilli, “to me”), لإلك (laʔillak, “to you”), etc., reduplicated personal forms of ل (la). And compare a similar backformation from the personal forms in Maltese lejn.

lil

1. to, with

   Synonym: għand

   • 2018, Antoinette Borg, Amina, Merlin Publishers, →ISBN:

     Għafastha għax emozzjonata ħafna u għandi bżonn kbir li nħoss lil xi ħadd qrib tiegħi.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1949, Anton Buttigieg, “Il-Ġebla tal-Ġeneral”, in Fanali bil-Lejl:

     u lili firdu minn mal-art għal dejjem,
     u jien sfajt blata u gżira l-aktar ċkejkna,
     bi ftit faqqiegħ u ftit gremxul sewdieni
     ngħix ħajja waħdi.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

lil (nominative plural lils)

1. ear

• lilön