bill

bill n Bill, beak, neb, nib denote the jaws of a bird together with their projecting horny covering.

Bill is the general term and is used inclusively by ornithologists for such a structure; in popular usage, however, bill suggests a structure that is straight and often flattened or long and slender (as in the duck, swan, hummingbird, crane, heron, sandpiper, or snipe) or one that is short, stout, and conical (as in the cardinal bird or hawfinch).

Beak is associated with striking or tearing and is the usual term for a structure, characteristic especially of birds of prey, in which the tip of the upper mandible has a sharp downward curvature and overhangs the lower mandible (as in the eagle, vulture, or hawk)

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although the kite soar with unbloodied beak— Shak.

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Neb and nib are equivalent to bill or beak chiefly in dialect or poetry but derive from this use their commoner extended sense of a jutting or pointed thing or part

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the nib of a pen

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bill n Bill, act, statute, law are frequently confused when used to designate a legislative measure.

Bill is properly applied only to the draft of a measure submitted to a legislature for its acceptance or rejection. The other terms are properly applied only to bills which have been passed. In actual use they are practically identical. Strictly, however, a bill becomes an act when it is passed and duly signed by an executive officer; an act becomes a statute when it is legally effective and a part of the written law of the state; a statute is one kind of law (see LAW).