Definition

properly, to bore, i.e. (by implication) to wound, to dissolve; figuratively, to profane (a person, place or thing), to break (one's word), to begin (as if by an 'opening wedge'); to play (the flute)

Etymology

a primitive root (compare H2470 (חָלָה)); also denominative (from H2485 (חָלִיל))

Where the KJV renders it

• begin ( men began)
• defile
• break
• eat (as common things)
• first
• gather the grape thereof
• take inheritance
• pipe
• player on instruments
• pollute
• (cast as) profane (self)
• prostitute
• slay (slain)
• sorrow
• stain
• wound

Every distinct English word the King James Version uses to translate this Hebrew term. The variety shows what readers in English receive across many different surface words — the same underlying word, scattered across the English Bible under different names.

What the first audience heard

A deep-dive treatment of this word is in the works. The featured chapter above carries the long form of what this word meant to its first audience.