verb (used with object)
- to affect with a sudden wave of keen emotion or excitement, as to produce a tremor or tingling sensation through the body.
- to utter or send forth tremulously, as a melody.
verb (used without object)
- to affect one with a wave of emotion or excitement.
- to be stirred by a tremor or tingling sensation of emotion or excitement: He thrilled at the thought of home.
- to cause a prickling or tingling sensation; throb.
- to move tremulously; vibrate; quiver.
noun
- a sudden wave of keen emotion or excitement, sometimes manifested as a tremor or tingling sensation passing through the body.
- something that produces or is capable of producing such a sensation: a story full of thrills.
- a thrilling experience: It was a thrill to see Paris again.
- a vibration or quivering.
- Pathology. an abnormal tremor or vibration, as in the respiratory or vascular system.
noun
- a sudden sensation of excitement and pleasureseeing his book for sale gave him a thrill
- a situation producing such a sensationit was a thrill to see Rome for the first time
- a trembling sensation caused by fear or emotional shock
- pathol an abnormal slight tremor associated with a heart or vascular murmur, felt on palpation
verb
- to feel or cause to feel a thrill
- to tremble or cause to tremble; vibrate or quiver
v.c.1300, “to pierce, penetrate,” metathesis of Old English þyrlian, from þyrel “hole” (in Middle English, also “nostril”), from þurh “through” (cf. Middle High German dürchel “pierced, perforated;” see through) + -el. Meaning “give a shivering, exciting feeling” is first recorded 1590s, via metaphoric notion of “pierce with emotion.” Related: Thrilled; thrilling. n.“a shivering, exciting feeling,” 1670s, from thrill (v.). Meaning “a thrilling experience” is attested from 1936. n.
- The vibration accompanying a cardiac or vascular murmur, detectible on palpation.