drill

To intensely or vigorously interrogate someone. My parents wouldn't stop drilling me with questions as I was heading out the door—I thought I'd never be able to leave! Would you stop drilling me? I don't know where he is!

to bore downward to something or some distance. We drilled down to a layer of waterbearing sand, hoping to make a well. They had to drill down to bedrock to make a base for the piers that hold the building up.

to bore into or penetrate something. The worker drilled into the wall in three places. Please don't drill into the wall here, where it will show.

to give someone practice in something. Now, I am going to drill you in irregular verbs. The teacher drilled the students in the use of the passive.

Fig. to force knowledge into someone or something Learn this stuff! Drill it into your brain. Drill in this information so you know it by heart!

to have something repeated very frequently You learn vocabulary by having it drilled into you.

to know what needs to be done or what usually happens in a situation You know the drill - cut the grass, bag the clippings, and leave them at the curb.

A politically incorrect term for chaos. The phrase supposedly originated in the early 1900s. A ship with British officers and a Chinese crew practiced an engine room fire drill. The bucket brigade drew water from the ship's starboard side, carried it to the engine room, and simulated throwing it on the “fire.” Another crew carried the buckets to the main deck and threw the water over the port side. But when orders became confused in translation, the bucket brigade started to draw the water from the starboard side, run over to the port side, and then throw the water overboard, bypassing the engine room completely. A 1960s stunt was for a carload of teenagers of college students to stop at a red light, whereupon at the command “Chinese fire drill,” driver and passengers got out, ran around the car, and returned to their original seats. The same idea is sometimes heard as the equally politically incorrect “Chinese square dance.”

Military inspection for venereal diseases. Beginning with World War II, the military made visual determinations with regard to sexually transmitted diseases (primarily gonorrhea) through what was called a short arms inspection (or drill). Held early in the morning, men dressed in only their boots, helmet liners, and overcoat were summoned out of their barracks or bunks and ordered to line up. When indicated by the medical officer, each man opened his coat to bare his penis, which he then “milked” in a stripping motion to show whether there was any infectious discharge. The term distinguished between a man's governmentissued firearm and his own “short arm.” The inspection practice ended after the Vietnam conflict.