quill

Definitions

• The lower shaft of a feather, specifically the region lacking barbs.
• A pen made from a feather.
• (figuratively) Any pen.
• A sharply pointed, barbed, and easily detached needle-like structure that grows on the skin of a porcupine or hedgehog as a defense against predators.
• A thin piece of bark, especially of cinnamon or cinchona, curled up into a tube.
• The pen of a squid.
• (music) The plectrum with which musicians strike the strings of certain instruments.
• (music) The tube of a musical instrument.
• Something having the form of a quill, such as the fold or plain of a ruff, or (weaving) a spindle, or spool, upon which the thread for the woof is wound in a shuttle.