ceil

verb, noun — 4 senses

ceil

verb

/siːl/

Etymology Uncertain; perhaps related to Latin cēlō (“to hide”).

1

To line or finish (a surface, such as a wall), with plaster, stucco, thin boards, or similar.

It is nearly always old and bare, built of rough boards, and neither plastered nor ceiled.1903 June 1, W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, “Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece”, in The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches, 2nd edition, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., →OCLC, page 139:

Derived terms: ceiler, ceiling

ceil

noun

Etymology Abbrevation of ceiling, influenced by French ciel

1

Poetic A ceiling.

[…] The mossy sward / Beneath their feet, their carpet was, / An azure ceil, the sky above; […]1890, Ambrose E. Pratt, Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of Sandwich and Bourne, at Sandwich, Massachusetts, September 3, 1889, page 89:

2

Mathematics, Sciences Abbreviation Abbreviation of ceiling.

Derived terms: ceil function

ceil

verb

Etymology Abbrevation of ceiling, influenced by French ciel

1

Mathematics, Sciences To set a higher bound.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.