fill the bill

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Verb

fill the bill (third-person singular simple present fills the bill, present participle filling the bill, simple past and past participle filled the bill)

1. (idiomatic) Alternative form of fit the bill [from 19th c.]
   • 1893, Horatio Alger, chapter 29, in Cast Upon the Breakers:

     You've got a head on your shoulders, you have! I guess you'll fill the bill.

   • 1923 June 25, “Stratton and Edison”, in Time:

     He said that the automotive industry must find a substitute for gasoline, on which the elder Edison commented that the electric storage battery has already filled the bill.

   • 1976 December 18, David Holland, “Dear Santa...”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 25, page 11:

     For those looking for the unusual, Boston, like most cities, has an abundance of shops that fill the bill. Forever Flamingo, on Newbury St., is now a veritable three-ring circus of some of the best examples of art-deco memorabilia.

References

• “fill the bill”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.