pile1

[pahyl] /paɪl/
noun
1.
an assemblage of things laid or lying one upon the other:
a pile of papers; a pile of bricks.
2.
Informal. a large number, quantity, or amount of anything:
a pile of work.
3.
a heap of wood on which a dead body, a living person, or a sacrifice is burned; pyre.
4.
a lofty or large building or group of buildings:
the noble pile of Windsor Castle.
5.
Informal. a large accumulation of money:
They made a pile on Wall Street.
6.
a bundle of pieces of iron ready to be welded and drawn out into bars; fagot.
7.
reactor (def 4).
8.
Electricity, voltaic pile.
verb (used with object), piled, piling.
9.
to lay or dispose in a pile (often followed by up):
to pile up the fallen autumn leaves.
10.
to accumulate or store (often followed by up):
to pile up money; squirrels piling up nuts against the winter.
11.
to cover or load with a pile:
He piled the wagon with hay.
verb (used without object), piled, piling.
12.
to accumulate, as money, debts, evidence, etc. (usually followed by up).
13.
Informal. to move as a group in a more or less confused, disorderly cluster:
to pile off a train.
14.
to gather, accumulate, or rise in a pile or piles (often followed by up):
The snow is piling up on the roofs.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English < Middle French < Latin pīla pillar, mole of stone
Synonyms
1. collection, heap, mass, accumulation, stack, mound, batch.

pile2

[pahyl] /paɪl/
noun
1.
a cylindrical or flat member of wood, steel, concrete, etc., often tapered or pointed at the lower end, hammered vertically into soil to form part of a foundation or retaining wall.
2.
Heraldry. an ordinary in the form of a wedge or triangle coming from one edge of the escutcheon, from the chief unless otherwise specified.
3.
Archery. the sharp head or striking end of an arrow, usually of metal and of the form of a wedge or conical nub.
verb (used with object), piled, piling.
4.
to furnish, strengthen, or support with piles.
5.
to drive piles into.
Idioms
6.
in pile, Heraldry. (of a number of charges) arranged in the manner of a pile.
Origin
before 1000; Middle English; Old English pīl shaft < Latin pīlum javelin

pile3

[pahyl] /paɪl/
noun
1.
hair.
2.
soft, fine hair or down.
3.
wool, fur, or pelage.
4.
a fabric with a surface of upright yarns, cut or looped, as corduroy, Turkish toweling, velvet, and velveteen.
5.
such a surface.
6.
one of the strands in such a surface.
Origin
1300-50; Middle English piles hair, plumage < Latin pilus hair; -i- short in L but long in Anglicized school pronunciation

pile4

[pahyl] /paɪl/
noun, Usually, piles
1.
a hemorrhoid.
2.
the condition of having hemorrhoids.
Origin
1375-1425; late Middle English pyles (plural) < Latin pilae literally, balls. See pill1

pile5

[pahyl] /paɪl/
noun
1.
the lower of two dies for coining by hand.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English pyl reverse of a coin < Medieval Latin pīla, special use of Latin pīla pile1
Examples from the web for pile
  • Let us heap up mountains of human heads, and pile up heaps of human entrails.
  • They knelt to gather up the grain back into their baskets, and then let it fall once more before they set it aside in a pile.
  • Guests pile their plates with a heap of rice and add toppings as they please into a loaded stack.
  • If the compost pile is already in existence, then the leaves can simply be added to it.
  • Either way, a pile of papers almost always means a lost weekend.
  • Once the caisson was in position, the pile would be pumped out and driven into the ooze.
  • Moderate heat is one of the signs of a healthy compost pile.
  • Gardeners and other environmentally conscious people will add the leaves to a compost pile to become a natural fertilizer.
  • As you clean out the summer garden, pile everything but diseased material onto the compost pile.
  • If it feels too wet, turn the pile and cover it, to protect from rain.
British Dictionary definitions for pile

pile1

/paɪl/
noun
1.
a collection of objects laid on top of one another or of other material stacked vertically; heap; mound
2.
(informal) a large amount of money (esp in the phrase make a pile)
3.
(often pl) (informal) a large amount: a pile of work
4.
a less common word for pyre
5.
a large building or group of buildings
6.
short for voltaic pile
7.
(physics) a structure of uranium and a moderator used for producing atomic energy; nuclear reactor
8.
(metallurgy) an arrangement of wrought-iron bars that are to be heated and worked into a single bar
9.
the point of an arrow
verb
10.
(often foll by up) to collect or be collected into or as if into a pile: snow piled up in the drive
11.
(intransitive; foll by in, into, off, out, etc) to move in a group, esp in a hurried or disorganized manner: to pile off the bus
12.
pile arms, to prop a number of rifles together, muzzles together and upwards, butts forming the base
13.
(informal) pile it on, to exaggerate
See also pile up
Word Origin
C15: via Old French from Latin pīla stone pier

pile2

/paɪl/
noun
1.
a long column of timber, concrete, or steel that is driven into the ground to provide a foundation for a vertical load (a bearing pile) or a group of such columns to resist a horizontal load from earth or water pressure (a sheet pile)
2.
(heraldry) an ordinary shaped like a wedge, usually displayed point-downwards
verb (transitive)
3.
to drive (piles) into the ground
4.
to provide or support (a structure) with piles
Word Origin
Old English pīl, from Latin pīlum

pile3

/paɪl/
noun
1.
(textiles)
  1. the yarns in a fabric that stand up or out from the weave, as in carpeting, velvet, flannel, etc
  2. one of these yarns
2.
soft fine hair, fur, wool, etc
Word Origin
C15: from Anglo-Norman pyle, from Latin pilus hair
Word Origin and History for pile
n.

"mass, heap," early 15c., originally "pillar, pier of a bridge," from Middle French pile and directly from Latin pila "stone barrier, pillar, pier" (see pillar). Sense development in Latin from "pier, harbor wall of stones," to "something heaped up." In English, sense of "heap of things" is attested from mid-15c. (the verb in this sense is recorded from mid-14c.). The meaning "large building" (late 14c.) is probably the same word.

"heavy pointed beam," from Old English pil "stake," also "arrow," from Latin pilum heavy javelin of the Roman foot soldier, literally "pestle" (source of Old Norse pila, Old High German pfil, German Pfeil "arrow"), of uncertain origin.

"soft, raised surface upon cloth," mid-14c., "downy plumage," from Anglo-French pyle or Middle Dutch pijl, both from Latin pilus "a hair" (source of Italian pelo, Old French pel). Phonological evidence rules out transmission of the English word via Old French cognate peil, poil. Meaning "nap upon cloth" is from 1560s.

v.

"to heap up," mid-14c.; see pile (n.1). Related: Piled; piling. Figurative verbal expression pile on "attack vigorously, attack en masse," is from 1894, American English.

pile in Medicine

pile (pīl)
n.
A hemorrhoid.

Slang definitions & phrases for pile

pile

verb

To dash; run; thrust oneself: I piled after her hell to split (1948+)

Related Terms

grub-pile


pile in Technology


1. Polytechnic's Instructional Language for Educators. Similar in use to an enhanced PILOT, but structurally more like Pascal with Awk-like associative arrays (optionally stored on disk). Distributed to about 50 sites by Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation for Apple II and CP/M.
["A Universal Computer Aided Instruction System," Henry G. Dietz & Ronald J Juels, Proc Natl Educ Computing Conf '83, pp.279-282].
2. ["PILE _ A Language for Sound Synthesis", P. Berg, Computer Music Journal 3.1, 1979].
(1999-06-04)

Idioms and Phrases with pile

pile

also see:
make a bundle (pile)