- The definition of a pillow is a cushion or cloth container stuffed with something soft used for comfort and support.
An example of a pillow is what people normally have under their head while sleeping.
Two pillows on a bed.
- a cloth case filled with feathers, down, foam rubber, air, etc., used as a support, as for the head in sleeping
- any object used as a headrest
- anything like a pillow or cushion, as a pad on which certain laces are made
- anything that supports like a pillow
Origin of pillowMiddle English pylwe ; from Old English pyle, akin to German pfühl ; from West Germanic borrowing of Classical Latin pulvinus, cushion
- to rest on or as on a pillow
- to be a pillow for
- A cloth case stuffed with something soft, such as down, feathers, or foam rubber, used to cushion the head, especially during sleep.
- A decorative cushion.
- The pad on which bobbin lace is made.
verbpil·lowed, pil·low·ing, pil·lows
- To rest (one's head) on or as if on a pillow.
- To serve as a pillow for: Grass pillowed my head.
- To rest on or as if on a pillow.
- To assume the shape of a pillow.
Origin of pillowMiddle English, from Old English pyle, pylu, pylw-, from West Germanic *pulwī, from Latin pulvīnus.
(third-person singular simple present pillows, present participle pillowing, simple past and past participle pillowed)
- To rest as on a pillow.
- 1942: She had pillowed her head on her arm — Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (Canongate 2006, p. 815-6)