In the Private Voices corpus of American Civil War letters, the term pill is often used to mean bullet, although this slang term is at least a century older. This is part of a complete episode.
If someone’s driving you bonkers, you’d be forgiven for grumbling, “He’s such a pill!” But why a pill? This is part of a complete episode.
boat n.— «The investigation began earlier this month after Vu allegedly began negotiating the sale 1,000-pill quantities of ecstasy, commonly known as a “boat,” for between $2,500 and $2,700.» —“3,500 Dosage Units Of Date...