Dictionary

quilly en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˈkwɪli/ (UK)

Etymology

From quill + -y.

Meanings

1. Pertaining to or resembling a quill.
   • The fabrick of the wing, as it appears through a moderately magnifying Microscope, seems to be a body consisting of two parts […]; the one is a quilly or finny substance, consisting of several long, slender and variously bended quills or wires, something resembling the veins of leaves […]. 1665, Robert Hooke, Micrographia, section XXXVIII:
2. With quills; quilled.
   • […] sometimes you may even run across a quilly ball lying right on top of the ledge, or catch one of the numerous porcupine family picking its way leisurely among the rocks. 2005, Jean M. Thompson, Wild Kindred of Fur, Feather and Fin, page 79:

Forms