Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TILL, prep. [or adv. Sax. til, tille; Sw. and Dan. til; Sax. atillan, to reach or come to. This word in Sw. and Dan. as in Scottish, signifies to or at, and is the principal word used where we use to. The primary sense of the verb is expressed in the Saxon.]

1. To the time or time of. I did not see the man till the last time he came; I waited for him till four o'clock; I will wait till next week. Till now, to the present time. I never heard of the fact till now. Till then, to that time. I never heard of the fact till then.
2. It is used before verbs and sentences in a like sense, denoting to the time specified in the sentence or clause following. I will wait till you arrive. He said to them, occupy till I come. Luke xix. Certain Jews – bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Acts xxiii. Meditate so long till you make some act of prayer to God. Taylor. Note. In this use, till is not a conjunction; it does not connect sentences like and, or like or. It neither denotes union nor separation, nor an alternative. It has always the same office, except that it precedes a single word or a single sentence; the time to which it refers being in one case expressed by a single word, as now, or then, or time, with this, or that, &c. and in the other by a verb with its adjuncts; as, occupy till I come, that is, to I come. In the latter use, till is a preposition preceding a sentence, like against, in the phrase, against I come.