Forms: 4–7 byll(e, bille, 6–7 byl, bil, 4– bill. [ME. bille, in Afr. bille, (AngloL. billa, an alteration of L. bulla in its mediæval sense. In cl.L., bulla was ‘a bubble, a boss, a stud, an amulet for the neck’; whence, in med.L., ‘a seal’ esp. ‘the seal appended to a charter,’ etc.; thence, transf. ‘a document furnished with a seal’ e.g., a charter, a papal ‘bull’; and, by extension, any official or formal document, ‘a bill, schedule, memorandum, note, paper.’ It was in these latter senses that bulla became in England billa, bille. Being a word of common use (see Du Cange), bulla was probably pronounced with ü, passing into Eng. y; i; though no direct evidence of this has been found.]
† 1. A written document (originally sealed), a statement in writing (more or less formal); a letter, note, memorandum (cf. BILLET sb.) Obs. in general sense, but retained in numerous legal and commercial terms: see 10.
[H. Knyghton, Chron., III. i. an. 1272. Decanus Lincolniensis proposuit unam billam excusatoriam.]
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1081. Scripe nor bill … that touchith suche matere, Ne bring me none!
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 304. But eche of hem to make a bille He bad and write his own wille.
1424. E. E. Wills (1882), 55. I … declare my last will in þis bille.
1425. Paston Lett., 5, I. 21. I send you, closed in this bille the copie of un frendly lettre.
c. 1460. Stans Puer, 92, in Babees Bk. (1868), 32. Go, litel bille, bareyn of eloquence, Pray yonge children that the shal see or Reede, [etc.].
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., xi. Every thing … expressed in this bill of peticion.
1531. W. T., Epist. John, 10. It is called … an Epistle because it is sent as a letter or a byll.
1599. Hakluyt, Voy., II. I. 25. To cast ouer the wals into the campe of the Christians, certaine bils written in Hebrue, Greeke, and Latine.
1727. Swift, Furth. Acc. E. Curll, Wks. 1755, III. I. 156. To whom he gave the following bill of directions, where to find them.
1755. Magens, Insurances, II. 122. A Bill containing the Reasons of the Citation shall be left with the Person that is summoned, or at his House.
† b. A letter or ‘bull’ of the Pope. Obs.
a. 1450. Myrc, 709. All þat falsen the popes lettres or billes or seales.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorelles B., 7. The pope darlaye hath graunted in his byll That euery brother may do what he wyll.
† c. A writing circulated reflecting upon any person; the analogue of the later printed pamphlet or lampoon. Obs.
1424. Paston Lett., 4, I. 13. Manaces of deth … maden … by … billes rymed in partye.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 622/1. By sclaunderous bylles blowe abrode an euyl noughty tale.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph. (1877), 273. Augustus had written a great ragmans rewe, or bille, to be soung on Pollio in derision and skorne of hym by name.
1553–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 812/2. Many billes and rimes were set forth in diuers places against them.
† d. A deed. Obs.
1548. Forrest, Pleas. Poes., 95. And then I dare to this Byll sett my hande.
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faust., v. 74. Consummatum est; this bill is ended.
1613. R. C., Table Alph., Scedule, obligation, or bill of ones hand.
† 2. A formal document containing a petition to a person in authority; a written petition. Obs.
[1321. Liber Custum. (Rolls Ser.), 379. Come ils eient requis par bille a voz Justices eiraunz en la Tour de Loundres remedie dun tort.]
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIII. 247. Hadde iche a clerke þat couthe write I wolde caste hym [the pope] a bille.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., lxxxii. A warld of folk … With billis in thaire handis, of one assent Vnto the Iuge thaire playntis to present.
1555. Fardle Facions, I. v. 56. In the morning … it behoued him to peruse al lettres supplicacions, and billes.
1681. Nevile, Plato Rediv., 111. That no Parliament should be dismist, till all the Petitions were answered; That is … till all the Bills (which were then styled Petitions) were finished.
1728. Pope, Dunc., II. 89. All vain petitions … Amus’d he reads, and then returns the bills.
† b. A supplicatory address (not necessarily in writing); a prayer, supplication, request. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Doctor’s T., 166. Doth me right upon this pitous bille, In which I pleyne upon Virginius.
c. 1430. Lydg., Bochas, VI. i. (1554), 145 b. This was the bille which y John Bochas Made unto Fortune.
1570. Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 234. Diligent to heir the pure mannis bill.
† c. To put (up) a bill: to present a petition.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. V. 141. The bishops at Nicæa, putte up billes to be emperour.
1414. Brampton, Penit. Ps., xxviii. 11. And mekely puttyth to the this bylle.
1450. Paston Lett., I. 153. I cend yow a copy of the bylle that my Lord of Yorke put unto the Kynge.
3. The draft of an Act of Parliament submitted to the legislature for discussion and adoption as an ‘Act.’ Historically, this has passed through the senses of a. A petition to the Sovereign, as in sense 2; b. A petition, containing the draft of the act or statute prayed for; c. The draft act without the petitionary form, as is now the case with all Public bills, or such as affect the interests of the public generally. Private bills, i.e., such as grant relief to or confer privileges upon individuals or corporations, are still introduced in the form of petitions. The nature and scope of a bill is expressed by such phraseology as ‘a bill to reform the representation of the people,’ ‘a Bill of Indemnity,’ a ‘Reform Bill,’ ‘Manchester Waterworks Bill.’
[1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. V. 45. Thenne cam pees in-to parlement and putte vp a bylle, How þat wrong wilffullich hadde hus wif for-leyen.
1484. Act 1 Hen. VII. (1780), X. App. 103. Item quædam alia Billa … cum cedula eidem annexa exhibita fuit coram Domino Rege in Parliamento prædicto.]
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., viii. Pream., To putte forth certeyn bylles in this present parliament.
1577–87. Harrison, England, II. viii. (1877), 176. The clerke of the parlement, whose office is to read the billes.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., II. i. 29. Ile Exhibit a Bill in the Parliament for the putting downe of men.
1709. London Gaz., No. 4534/1. A Message to the House of Commons … to desire the House to come up … to be present at the passing the said Bills into Acts.
1798. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), IV. 217. Congress has nothing of any importance before them, except the bill on foreign intercourse.
1813. Parl. Deb., in Examiner, 21 May, 328/1. [He] moved, that the Insolvent Debtors’ Bill be re-committed.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, xxi. 163. The bill … passed the House of Lords.
1884. Gladstone, in Standard, 29 Feb., 2/7. We knew … that the Bill must remain a Bill, and could never have become an Act of Parliament.
† 4. Law. A written statement of a case; a pleading by the plaintiff or defendant (but generally by the former), e.g., a bill of complaint in Chancery; an indictment. Obs. exc. in certain phrases, chiefly, To find a true bill, to ignore the bill, said of a Grand Jury, whose duty it is, in criminal Assizes, to declare that there is, or is not, sufficient evidence to justify the hearing of a case before the judge and ordinary jury.
c. 1400. Maundev., xv. 172. Both partyes writen here Causes in 2 Billes.
c. 1480. Black Bk. Admiralty (Rolls), I. 305. [Les querelles et billes de lappellant et du deffendant seront plaidees a la court.] transl. The quarell and the billes of the appellant and of the defendant shall be pletid in the Court.
1495. Act 1 Hen. VII., vii. Justices … have auctorite … to here and determyn the reherced causes … upon bill before theym.
1531. Act 23 Hen. VIII., xv. Any accion, bill, or playnt of trespace.
1607. Cowell, Interpr., Bille is … a declaration in writing, that expresseth either the griefe and the wrong that the complaynant hath suffered, by the party complayned of, or els some fault, that the party complayned of, hath committed against some law or statute of the common wealth. Ibid., Ignoramus, is a word properly vsed by the Grand Enquest … and written vpon the bill.
1660. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 89/1. Anytus … procured Melitus to prefer a bill against him.
1788. J. Powell, Devises (1827), II. 485. Sir T. Plumer, M.R. … accordingly dismissed the bill.
b. Scotch Law. Any summary application by way of petition to the Court of Session.
† 5. A written list or catalog, an inventory. Obs. exc. in specific combinations.
a. 1340. Hampole, Prose Tr. (1866), 7. The abbotte tuke þat byll þat þay ware wrettyn in and lukede thareone.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (1841), 41. Synne … scrapyth hym out of lyvys bylle, That blyssyd book.
a. 1500. E. E. Misc. (1855), 64. Thay schalle he wryttyne in a bylle.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xviii. 26. Than the knyghtis … made a byll of their horses, and suche other stuffe as they had lost.
1605. Shaks., Macb., III. i. 100. Whereby he does receiue Particular addition, from the Bill, That writes them all alike.
† b. Med. A list of drugs, etc., to be mixed to form a medicine, a medical prescription or recipe.
1529. More, Comf. agst. Trib., I. Wks. 1142/2. After the billes made by the greate physicion God, prescrybynge the medicines hymselfe.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. xliv. (1612), 209. Physitians bylles not Patients but Apothecaries know.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. I. 603. Like him that took the Doctor’s Bill And swallow’d it instead o’ th’ Pill.
1754. Smellie, Midwif., III. 540. The Apothecary … went home to bring the bills.
c. Naut. A list of persons appointed to duties.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, xiii. Turn the hands up to muster by the quarter-bill.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxiii. 69. Each man had his station. A regular tacking and wearing bill was made out.
d. Typogr. A scale or list of the proper quantities of each letter required for a fount.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 29. We will now give … a regular bill, perfect in all its sorts.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 640. Typefounders have a scale or bill, as it is called, of the proportional quantity of each letter required for a fount.
6. A note of charges for goods delivered or services rendered, in which the cost of each item is separately stated; also known as a bill of parcels.
In modern use, confined in this sense to the professions and to retail trade, and implying a demand for payment. In wholesale transactions, an ‘invoice,’ containing the usual particulars of a bill, is supplied on delivery of the goods, and the formal demand for payment is made by a ‘statement of account’ sent in when the money is due. Bill is however often loosely used for ‘invoice,’ and vice versâ.
1420. E. E. Wills (1882), 53. Þat [they] be paied of their billes for makyng off a liuerey.
1526. Tindale, Luke xvi. 6. Take thy bill … and wryte fiftie.
1600. B. Jonson, Ev. Man out of Hum., IV. v. Farewell, good haberdasher. Well, now, Master Snip, let me see your bill.
1671. Lex Talionis, 10. Apothecaries Bills, which … amount to very great Sums.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 5079/3. Several other Notes and Bills of Parcels.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., lv. I did myself the pleasure of discharging the bill.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., x. Call a hackney-coach directly, and bring this lady’s bill.
† 7. A label. Obs.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, 130. I haue put on eche keye a bylle and writyng.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., I. ii. 131. Three proper yong men … With bils on their neckes.
8. A written or printed advertisement to be passed from hand to hand (hence also called handbill), or posted up or displayed in some prominent place; a poster, a placard.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxiii. 199. The scottes made a bylle that was fastned vpon the chirche dores of seynt petre.
1563. Grindal, in Strype, Life (1821), 122. [They] did then daily, but especially on the holidays, set up their bills, inviting to plays.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, I. i. 39. He set vp his bils here in Messina, and challenged Cupid at the flight.
1621. Molle, Camerar. Liv. Libr., IV. xv. 291. It was cried to be hired or sold, and Bils were set up to that purpose.
1666. Pepys, Diary (1879), IV. 193. Walked … to the Temple thinking to have seen a play … but there missing of any bills concluded there was none.
1678. N. Wanley, Wond., VI. xxix. 619/2. Bills set upon the Church-doors to inquire for things lost.
1710. Addison, Tatler, No. 240, ¶ 6. To be seen both upon the Sign where he lived, and in the Bills which he distributed.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, II. ii. Put out bills in the usual form, containing an exact description.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz, iii. A newly-posted bill informed us the house was again ‘To Let.’
† b. An announcement to be publicly read. Obs.
1642. Scots Scouts Disc., in Phœnix (1732), I. 464. One Sunday, at one Mr. Shute’s Parish Church, a Bill was delivered that John Commonwealth of England, being sick of the Scots Disease, desires the Prayers of the Congregation.
1727. Swift, Further Acc. E. Curll, Wks. 1755, III. I. 155. She privately put a bill into several churches, desiring the prayers of the congregation for a wretched stationer.
9. (More fully Bill of Exchange) A written order by the writer or ‘drawer’ to the ‘drawee’ (the person to whom it is addressed) to pay a certain sum on a given date to the ‘drawer,’ or to a third person named in the bill, known as the ‘payee.’
A true bill of exchange is given in consideration of value received (and this is usually stated upon the bill), but a bill is sometimes drawn, not against value received, but merely as a means of raising money on credit, and is then known as an Accommodation Bill (see ACCOMMODATION 8).
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., VI. (1599), 237. The merchants making difficultie … to accept the billes of exchange that were sent out of Fraunce.
1661. Pepys, Diary, 27 March. I did get him to promise me some money upon a bill of exchange.
1682. Scarlett, Exchanges, 23.
1713. Steele, Guardian, No. 2. He gave me a bill upon his goldsmith in London.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., II. 466.
1809. R. Langford, Introd. Trade, 20. An Inland Bill is when the drawer and person drawn upon live in the same country or kingdom.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xviii. His bills were protested; his act of bankruptcy formal.
1880. B. Price, in Fraser’s Mag., May, 668. Bills impart a valuable convenience to trade … they borrow the goods without payment for a time more or less long.
† b. Loosely used for: A promissory note. Obs. Hence, Bill of debt or bill obligatory: a bill acknowledging a debt and promising to meet it at a specified date. Also applied (with specification) to various promises to pay at a future date, or at sight, issued by Banks, and by the Government; cf. BANK-BILL, EXCHEQUER BILL.
1613. Dekker, Bankrouts Banq., Wks. 1884–5, III. 371. Next, came in Bils obligatory, a thousand in a cluster.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. Philemon, 19. I here give thee a Bill under my hand, that I will repay all that he oweth thee.
1711. Lond. Gaz., No. 4869/3. Navy, Victualling, Ordnance, and Transport Bills.
1721. King’s Sp., 19 Oct., in Lond. Gaz. The Navy and Victualling Bills are at very high Discount.
10. With specification: Bill of fare, a list of dishes to be served at a banquet, or which may be ordered at a restaurant (in the latter case with the prices attached), a ‘menu’; often fig. a program; bill of health, an official certificate given to the master of a vessel sailing from a port liable to infection, stating whether at the time of sailing any infectious disease existed on board or in the port (hence a clean bill: one certifying total absence of infection; suspected or touched bill, foul bill); also a similar document required of travellers in some foreign ports; bill of lading, an official detailed receipt given by the master of a merchant vessel to the person consigning the goods, by which he makes himself responsible for their safe delivery to the consignee. This document, being the legal proof of ownership of the goods, is often deposited with a creditor as security for money advanced; cf. CHARTER-PARTY; † bill of mortality or weekly bill, a periodically published official return of the deaths (later, also of the births) in a certain district; such a return began to be published weekly by the London Company of Parish Clerks in 1592 for 109 parishes in and around London; hence this district (the precise limits of which were often modified) became known as ‘within the bills of mortality’; bill of sale, a written instrument effecting a transfer of personal property; spec. a document given as security for money borrowed, authorizing the lender to seize the property in case of the non-payment of the money by a specified time; bill of sight, permission from the custom-house officers to land goods for inspection in their presence, when, from want of precise information, the consignee is unable to enter them accurately; bill of store (see quots.); † bill of sufferance (see quot.). Also bill of attainder, attorney (= letter of attorney), bill of conformity, credit, debt, discharge, exceptions, indictment, payment, receipt, remembrance, review, rights, etc., for which see these words.
[1577–87. Harrison, England, II. xv. (1877), 272. Which *bill [of dishes] some doo call a memoriall.]
1636. Massinger, Bashf. Lovers, Prol. ’Tis no crime … To please so many with one bill of fare.
1748. Mrs. S. Harrison, House-kprs. Pocket-bk., Pref. The Bill of Fare is a new and admirable contrivance.
1861. Mrs. Beeton, Bk. Househ. Managem., 954. A menu or bill of fare should be laid by the side of each guest.
1644. Evelyn, Mem., 12 Oct. Having procur’d a *bill of health (without which there is no admission at any towne in Italy) we embarq’d on the 12th.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. V. lx. 279. Upon his giving us a bill of health, I went on board.
1851. McCulloch, Dict. Comm., 1084. Were the said bills of health clean, unclean, or suspected?
1599. Hakluyt, II. II. 44. We … caused one of them to fetch vp his *bils of lading.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xiii. 62. Come aboord … with their … cocket, or bils of loading.
1875. Jevons, Money (1878), 207. A bill of lading entitles the legal holder of it to certain cases or packages of goods.
1645. Bp. Hall, Remed. Discontent., 26. Pleasure dies in the birth, and is not therefore worthy to come into this *bill of Mortality.
1681. Lond. Gaz., No. 1651/4. The second of September was taken up within the Bills of Mortality, a Deal Box.
1698. Congreve, Way of World, III. xv. We could have the gazette … and the Weekly Bill.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 54, ¶ 7. Living within the Bills of Mortality.
1734. Abstr. Act 10 Geo. I., in Lond. Gaz., No. 6270/7. All Chocolate … must be brought to be stamped … within the Weekly Bills in 14 Days.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, viii. He was as scrupulously whited as any sepulchre in the whole bills of mortality.
1608. Dekker, Belman Lond., Wks. (Grosart), III. 150. By *bils of sale … get the goods of honest Citizens into their hands.
1765. Phil. Trans., LV. 46. He sold the boy to his present master … I saw the bill of sale.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk. (ed. 2), 225. The Bill of Sale is the instrument by which a Vessel is transferred to a purchaser.
1852. McCulloch, Dict. Comm., 147. The East India Company are authorised … to enter goods by *bill of sight.
1670. Blount, Law Dict., *Bill of Store, is a kind of Licence granted at the Custom-house to Merchants, or others, to carry such Stores or Provision as are necessary for their Voyage Custom-free.
1833. Act 3 Will. IV., lii. It shall be lawful to re-import into the United Kingdom … any goods … which shall have been legally exported … and to enter the same by bill of store.
1670. Blount, Law Dict., *Bill of sufferance, is a Licence granted at the Custom-house to a Merchant, to suffer him to trade from one English Port to another, without paying Custom.
11. Comb. and Attrib., as (in sense 8) bill-poster, -sticker, -sticking, -patched, etc.; (in sense 9) bill-book, -broker, -broking, -discounter, -holder, -trade; (in sense 2) † bill-maker; bill chamber (sense 4), a department of the Scottish Court of Session, to which suitors may repair at all times (including vacations) in emergencies requiring summary proceeding; bill-head (sense 6), paper ruled for a tradesman’s bills, having his name, etc., printed at the top.
1774. Henley, in Phil. Trans., LXIV. 426. A large book … ruled in the manner of a *bill-book, used by tradesmen.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Vanderput & S., iv. 58. The *bill-brokers can tell how nearly the debts of different countries balance each other.
1764. Wesley, Jrnl., 2 July (1827), III. 179. That wretched trade of *bill-broking.
1857. Sat. Rev., III. 345. To create a fortune by banking, brewing, or *bill-broking.
1866. Crump, Banking, 135. A very common custom among bankers … who style themselves *bill-discounters.
1847. C. Addison, Contracts, II. v. § 1 (1883), 783. Securities … available to the *bill-holders if both drawer and acceptor become insolvent.
1529. More, Supplic. Souls, Wks. 302. They had leuer see theire *bylmaker burned, than their supplicacion spedde.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, III. ix. 218. Th’ Ape … is as malecontent As a *bill-patch’t doore.
1864. Times, 24 Dec., 9/3. A corps of *bill-posters, painters, &c., to put advertisements on the prominent rocks, bridges, and fences.
1774. Westm. Mag., II. 323. *Bill-stickers, pickpockets, and chimney-sweepers.
1862. Shirley, Nugæ Crit., § 2. 117. Written in large and prominent type, like that employ’d by bill-stickers.
1864. Realm, 23 March, 6. With … the progress of civilisation, *bill-sticking has expanded into bill-posterism.
1791. Wesley, Wks., 1872, VIII. 309. That base practice of raising money by coining notes (commonly called the *bill-trade).
