Other forms: drills
A drill is the loud electric tool that makes holes in walls. A spinning bit, a trigger, and dust everywhere.
The noun and verb go together, so you drill a hole with a drill. There is a second and very different sense meaning repeated practice, which is where a fire drill, a spelling drill and army drill all come from. The link is repetition, since both kinds of drill go round and round. As a verb that sense means to train by repetition, as in drilling the class in irregular verbs.
1noundrillA tool that bores holes by spinning a sharp bit.
“He borrowed a drill to put the shelf up.”
2nounrepeatedA repeated exercise for practice or training.
“They ran a fire drill every term.”
3verbboreTo make a hole in something with a turning tool.
“He drilled two holes in the wall for the shelf brackets.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Middle Dutch
drillen — bore, move in a circle
English, today
drill
From Middle Dutch drillen (“bore, move in a circle”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA