Pile

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /paɪl/
• Rhymes: -aɪl

Old English pīl, from Latin pīlum (""). Cognate with Dutch pijl, German Pfeil.

Full definition of pile

Noun

1. (obsolete) A dart; an arrow.
2. The head of an arrow or spear.
3. A large stake, or piece of pointed timber, steel etc., driven into the earth or sea-bed for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
• 1719, w, w:Robinson Crusoe Chapter , All this time I worked very hard ... and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour everything was done with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods and driving them into the ground; for I made them much bigger than I needed to have done.
4. (heraldiccharge) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.

Derived terms

• pile bridge
• pile cap
• pile driver
• pile dwelling
• pile engine
• pile plank
• pneumatic pile
• screw pile

Verb

1. (transitive) To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.

Apparently from Late Latin pilus.

Noun

1. (usually in plural) A hemorrhoid.

From Middle French pile, pille, from Latin pīla ("pillar, pier").

Noun

1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
• 1889, w, w:Cleopatra (novel), I climbed through, and, standing on a pile of stones, lifted and dragged Cleopatra after me.
2. (figuratively, informal) A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile, and the annoying guy on the "no" pile.
• 2011, December 29, Keith Jackson, SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0, And the moment it thumped into the net, Celtic’s march back to the top of the SPL pile also seemed unstoppable.
3. A mass formed in layers.a pile of shot
4. A funeral pile; a pyre.
5. A large building, or mass of buildings.
• DrydenThe pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight.
• 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, II.2:The pile is of a gloomy and massive, rather than of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture ...
• Thomas Hardy, The Well-BelovedIt was dark when the four-wheeled cab wherein he had brought Avice from the station stood at the entrance to the pile of flats of which Pierston occupied one floor...
6. A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a fagot.
7. A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals, as copper and zinc, laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; — commonly called Volta’s pile, voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
8. (obsolete) The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
9. (figuratively) A list or league
• 20 September 2012, Shaun Edwards, Bent double and lungs burning – how Harlequins train for trophiesWatch Harlequins train and you get some idea of why they are back on top of the pile going into Saturday's rerun of last season's grand final against Leicester.

Synonyms

Verb

1. (transitive) To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate; to amass; — often with up; as, to pile up wood.
2. (transitive) To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
• 2013-06-22, Engineers of a different kind, Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.
3. We piled the camel with our loads.
4. (transitive) To add something to a great number.
• 2010, December 28, Owen Phillips, Sunderland 0-2 Blackpool, But as the second half wore on, Sunderland piled forward at every opportunity and their relentless pressure looked certain to be rewarded in the closing stages.
5. (transitive) (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
6. (transitive, military) To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.

Related terms

• funeral pile
• pile bridge
• pile driver
• pile cap
• pile on
• pile up

Partly from Anglo-Norman pil (a variant of peil, poil ("hair")) and partly from its source, Latin pilus ("hair").

Noun

1. Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
2. The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
• William CowperVelvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile.

Anagrams

• plie, plié