Till has 12 different meanings across 5 categories:
Noun · Verb · Prep · Conj · Proper Noun
unstratified soil deposited by a glacier; consists of sand and clay and gravel and boulders mixed together
"The bulldozer struggled to push through the thick till, where jagged boulders were jumbled haphazardly beneath layers of wet clay."
a treasury for government funds
"The new policy required every local department to deposit its surplus revenue directly into the central till before year-end."
A cash register.
"The farmer pulled up the tough green till from between the rows of wheat before it could choke out the crop."
glacial drift consisting of a mixture of clay, sand, pebbles and boulders
A vetch; a tare.
In plain English: A till is a locked box used to keep cash and receipts safe in a store.
"She kept her money in a metal box on the counter next to the register."
work land as by ploughing, harrowing, and manuring, in order to make it ready for cultivation
"till the soil"
To develop so as to improve or prepare for usage; to cultivate (said of knowledge, virtue, mind etc.).
"She spent years tilling her mind through rigorous study and reflection."
In plain English: To till means to dig up and break apart soil so it is ready for planting crops.
"She worked behind the counter till late at night."
Usage: Use the verb till when you mean to actively work on developing your skills, character, or intellect over time. It is often paired with abstract nouns like "mind" or "virtue," whereas its more common agricultural meaning involves preparing soil for crops.
Until; to, up to; as late as (a given time).
"We stayed at the park till sunset before heading home for dinner."
Until, until the time that.
"I will wait here till you get back from the store."
A placename
"The old bakery on Till Street has been family-owned for three generations."
A river in Northumberland, England, United Kingdom, tributary to the Tweed.
"The small boat drifted down the Till toward its meeting point with the wider waters of the Tweed in Northumberland."
The word "till" comes from the Germanic language family and originally meant a planned point in time or toward something. It traveled into English as an independent preposition rather than being a shortened form of "until," which actually adds the prefix un- to the same root.