trilling

noun — 3 senses

trilling

noun
1

The production of a trill sound.

  • It was pretty close quarters, but I had conversed with her at such length during the nest-building time, that she knew my voice and soon began to answer me in low trillings — trillings that could scarcely be heard — and turn her head to look at me in a friendly way.1906, Jennie Brooks, “ways of the Kentucky Cardinal”, in Harper's Monthly Magazine, volume 112, number 670, page 627:
  • During the singing act these wing surfaces are moved rapidly on each other, producing the familiar strident trillings of midsummer.1910, Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington:

trilling

noun

Etymology Compare German Drilling.

1

Chemistry, Crystallography, Natural sciences, Physical sciences A compound crystal consisting of three individuals.

  • Diametrically opposed rays of these stellate groups are of the same optical orientation and the twins are, therefore, trillings ( fig. 29 ).1966, Geological Survey Professional Paper - Issues 509-510, page 55:
  • Chrysoberyl is orthorhombic in symmetry. Like many orthorhombic minerals, it readily forms an intergrowth with two other individual crystals to make trillings with six sides or, at least, V-shaped twins.1974, Mineral Digest, volumes 6-8, page 148:
1 more example
  • In the embryonic stage, pseudohexagonal trillings resemble those of the post-embryonic stage (Figure 2D,E), and are 1 to 3 μm in diameter.2013, Federico Olóriz, Francisco J. Rodríguez-Tovar, Advancing Research on Living and Fossil Cephalopods, page 235:
2

Obsolete, Rare One of three offspring born at the same birth; a triplet.

  • Every 67th lying-in woman has twins, every 5333rd has trillings, and only every 150,000th has fourlings.1842, “Sweden as it is; Moral, Political and Statistical”, in The Foreign Quarterly Review, volume 28, number 55, page 449:
  • this breed is prominent for its remarkable fecundity and yield of milk; as a rule, this goat litters once a year and drops 2 kids; occasionally trillings and fourlings.1922, The Goat World, Devoted to the Upbuilding of the Goat Industry, page 67:
1 more example
  • About twins and trillings.1926, Medicina fennica - Volumes 1-5, page 14:

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