Adjacent Words

Pile definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PILE, n. [L. pila.]
1. A heap; a mass or collection of things in a roundish or elevated form; as a pile of stones; a pile of bricks; a pile of wood or timber; a pile of ruins.
2. A collection of combustibles for burning a dead body; as a funeral pile.
3. A large building or mass of buildings; an edifice.
The pile o'erlook'd the town and drew the sight.
4. A heap of balls or shot laid in horizontal courses, rising into a pyramidical form.
PILE, n. [L. palus.]
1. A large stake or piece of timber, pointed and driven into the earth, as at the bottom of a river, or in a harbor where the ground is soft, for the support of a building or other superstructure. The stadthouse in Amsterdam is supported by piles.
2. One side of a coin; originally, a punch or puncheon used in stamping figures on coins, and containing the figures to be impressed. Hence the arms-side of a coin is called the pile, and the head the cross, which was formerly in the place of the head. Hence cross and pile.
3. In heraldry, an ordinary in form of a point inverted or a stake sharpened.
PILE, n. [L. pilum.] The head of an arrow.
PILE, n. [L. pilus.] Properly, a hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton and the like; hence, the nap, the fine hairy substance of the surface of cloth.
PILE, v.t. To lay or throw into a heap; to collect many things into a mass; as, to pile wood or stones.
1. To bring into an aggregate; to accumulate; as, to pile quotations or comments.
2. To fill with something heaped.
3. To fill above the brim or top.
4. To break off the awns of threshed barley. [Local.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a collection of objects laid on top of each other [syn: pile, heap, mound, agglomerate, cumulation, cumulus]
2: (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent; "a batch of letters"; "a deal of trouble"; "a lot of money"; "he made a mint on the stock market"; "see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos"; "it must have cost plenty"; "a slew of journalists"; "a wad of money" [syn: batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, stack, tidy sum, wad]
3: a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit); "she made a bundle selling real estate"; "they sank megabucks into their new house" [syn: pile, bundle, big bucks, megabucks, big money]
4: fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs) [syn: down, pile]
5: battery consisting of voltaic cells arranged in series; the earliest electric battery devised by Volta [syn: voltaic pile, pile, galvanic pile]
6: a column of wood or steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure [syn: pile, spile, piling, stilt]
7: the yarn (as in a rug or velvet or corduroy) that stands up from the weave; "for uniform color and texture tailors cut velvet with the pile running the same direction" [syn: pile, nap]
8: a nuclear reactor that uses controlled nuclear fission to generate energy [syn: atomic pile, atomic reactor, pile, chain reactor] v
1: arrange in stacks; "heap firewood around the fireplace"; "stack your books up on the shelves" [syn: stack, pile, heap]
2: press tightly together or cram; "The crowd packed the auditorium" [syn: throng, mob, pack, pile, jam]
3: place or lay as if in a pile; "The teacher piled work on the students until the parents protested"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, dart, quill, pole driven into the ground, from Old English p?l, from Latin pilum javelin Date: 12th century 1. a long slender column usually of timber, steel, or reinforced concrete driven into the ground to carry a vertical load 2. a wedge-shaped heraldic charge usually placed vertically with the broad end up 3. a. a target-shooting arrowhead without cutting edges b. [Latin pilum] an ancient Roman foot soldier's heavy javelin II. transitive verb (piled; piling) Date: 15th century to drive piles into III. verb (piled; piling) Etymology: Middle English, from ⁴pile Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. to lay or place in a pile ; stack 2. a. to heap in abundance ; load <piled potatoes on his plate> b. to collect little by little into a mass — usually used with up intransitive verb 1. to form a pile or accumulation — usually used with up 2. to move or press forward in or as if in a mass ; crowd <piled into a car> IV. noun Etymology: Middle English pier of a bridge, stack, heap, from Middle French pille pier of a bridge, from Latin pila pillar Date: 15th century 1. a. (1) a quantity of things heaped together (2) a heap of wood for burning a corpse or a sacrifice b. any great number or quantity ; lot 2. a large building or group of buildings 3. a great amount of money ; fortune 4. reactor 3b V. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French peil, pil hair, coat with thick nap, from Latin pilus hair Date: 15th century 1. a coat or surface of usually short close fine furry hairs 2. a velvety surface produced by an extra set of filling yarns that form raised loops which are cut and sheared • pileless adjective VI. noun Etymology: Middle English pilez, plural, from Medieval Latin pili, perhaps from Latin pila ball Date: 15th century 1. a single hemorrhoid 2. plural hemorrhoids

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. & v. --n. 1 a heap of things laid or gathered upon one another (a pile of leaves). 2 a a large imposing building (a stately pile). b a large group of tall buildings. 3 colloq. a a large quantity. b a large amount of money; a fortune (made his pile). 4 a a series of plates of dissimilar metals laid one on another alternately to produce an electric current. b = atomic pile. 5 a funeral pyre. --v. 1 tr. a (often foll. by up, on) heap up (piled the plates on the table). b (foll. by with) load (piled the bed with coats). 2 intr. (usu. foll. by in, into, on, out of, etc.) crowd hurriedly or tightly (all piled into the car; piled out of the restaurant). Phrases and idioms: pile arms hist. place (usu. four) rifles with their butts on the ground and the muzzles together. pile it on colloq. exaggerate. pile on the agony colloq. exaggerate for effect or to gain sympathy etc. pile up 1 accumulate; heap up. 2 colloq. run (a ship) aground or cause (a vehicle etc.) to crash. pile-up n. colloq. a multiple crash of road vehicles. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L pila pillar, pier, mole 2. n. & v. --n. 1 a heavy beam driven vertically into the bed of a river, soft ground, etc., to support the foundations of a superstructure. 2 a pointed stake or post. 3 Heraldry a wedge-shaped device. --v.tr. 1 provide with piles. 2 drive (piles) into the ground etc. Phrases and idioms: pile-driver a machine for driving piles into the ground. pile-dwelling a dwelling built on piles, esp. in a lake. Etymology: OE pil f. L pilum javelin 3. n. 1 the soft projecting surface on velvet, plush, etc., or esp. on a carpet; nap. 2 soft hair or down, or the wool of a sheep. Etymology: ME prob. f. AF pyle, peile, OF poil f. L pilus hair

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Piles Piles, n. pl. [L. pila a ball. Cf. Pill a medicine.] (Med.) The small, troublesome tumors or swellings about the anus and lower part of the rectum which are technically called hemorrhoids. See Hemorrhoids. Note: [The singular pile is sometimes used.] Blind piles, hemorrhoids which do not bleed.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(piles, piling, piled) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. A pile of things is a mass of them that is high in the middle and has sloping sides. ...a pile of sand... The leaves had been swept into huge piles. = heap, mound N-COUNT: usu N of n 2. A pile of things is a quantity of things that have been put neatly somewhere so that each thing is on top of the one below. ...a pile of boxes... The clothes were folded in a neat pile. N-COUNT: usu N of n 3. If you pile things somewhere, you put them there so that they form a pile. He was piling clothes into the suitcase... A few newspapers and magazines were piled on a table. VERB: V n adv/prep, V n adv/prep 4. If something is piled with things, it is covered or filled with piles of things. Tables were piled high with local produce. VERB: usu passive, be V-ed with n 5. If you talk about a pile of something or piles of something, you mean a large amount of it. (INFORMAL) ...a whole pile of disasters. QUANT: QUANT of pl-n/n-uncount 6. If a group of people pile into or out of a vehicle, they all get into it or out of it in a disorganized way. They all piled into Jerrold's car... A fleet of police cars suddenly arrived. Dozens of officers piled out. VERB: V into/out of n, V in/out 7. You can refer to a large impressive building as a pile, especially when it is the home of a rich important person. ...some stately pile in the country. N-COUNT 8. Piles are wooden, concrete, or metal posts which are pushed into the ground and on which buildings or bridges are built. Piles are often used in very wet areas so that the buildings do not flood. ...settlements of wooden houses, set on piles along the shore. N-COUNT: usu pl 9. Piles are painful swellings that can appear in the veins inside a person's anus. N-PLURAL 10. The pile of a carpet or of a fabric such as velvet is its soft surface. It consists of a lot of little threads standing on end. ...the carpet's thick pile. N-SING 11. Someone who is at the bottom of the pile is low down in society or low down in an organization. Someone who is at the top of the pile is high up in society or high up in an organization. (INFORMAL) PHRASE: oft v-link PHR

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

pil (medhurah, from dur, "heap up"): Isa 30:33, "The pile thereof is fire and much wood"; Eze 24:9,10, "I also will make the pile great. Heap on the wood, make the fire hot." Isa 30:33 may be paraphrased, `the pyre thereof is of much wood, burning fiercely.'

See TOPHETH.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. 1. Accumulate, amass. 2. Collect or gather into a heap, heap up. II. n. 1. Heap, mass, collection, accumulation. 2. Building, edifice, structure, fabric, erection. 3. Nap, woolly surface. 4. Funeral pile.

Moby Thesaurus

abscess, abundance, accumulate, accumulation, agglomeration, aggregate, aggregation, amass, amassment, angina, angina pectoris, anthill, aortic insufficiency, aortic stenosis, apoplectic stroke, architecture, arrhythmia, arteriosclerosis, assault, assemblage, assemble, assortment, atherosclerosis, atomic pile, atrial fibrillation, attack, auricular fibrillation, back, backlog, bag, bags, baluster, balustrade, banister, bank, bank up, bankroll, barrel, base, batch, bed sore, beriberi heart, bestraddle, bestride, blade, blain, bleb, blister, board, boil, bomb, boodle, bottle, box, bract, bracteole, bractlet, breeder reactor, bricks, bristle, bristles, brush, bubo, budget, building, bulla, bundle, bunion, burden, can, canker, canker sore, capillament, carbuncle, cardiac arrest, cardiac insufficiency, cardiac shock, cardiac stenosis, cardiac thrombosis, carditis, caryatid, chain reactor, chain-reacting pile, chancre, chancroid, charge, chilblain, choke, cilium, climb on, coat, cock, cold sore, collect, collection, colonnade, column, commissariat, commissary, concentration, congenital heart disease, congeries, conglomeration, considerable, construct, construction, cor biloculare, cor juvenum, cor triatriatum, cornucopia, coronary, coronary insufficiency, coronary thrombosis, cotyledon, crate, crowd in, cumulate, cumulation, dado, deal, deposit, diastolic hypertension, die, down, drift, dump, dune, edifice, eiderdown, embankment, encased heart, endocarditis, enter, erection, eschar, establishment, exaggerate, exit, extrasystole, fabric, fast pile, fatty heart, feel, felon, fester, festering, fever blister, fibroid heart, fill, finish, fistula, flag, flask-shaped heart, fleece, floral leaf, floss, flue, fluff, foliole, footstalk, fortune, freight, frond, frosted heart, fur, furnace, furuncle, furunculus, fuzz, gathering, get in, get into, get on, glomeration, glume, go aboard, go on board, gobs, good deal, good sum, grain, granular texture, great deal, gumboil, hair, hairy heart, haycock, haymow, hayrick, haystack, heap, heap up, heaps, heaps of gold, heart attack, heart block, heart condition, heart disease, heart failure, hemorrhoids, heterogeneous reactor, high blood pressure, hill, hoard, holdings, homogeneous reactor, hop in, horsehair, house, hypertension, hypertensive heart disease, intermediate pile, inventory, involucre, involucrum, ischemic heart disease, jack, jam in, jumble, jump in, jump on, kibe, knub, lade, lamina, larder, large sum, lashings, lattice, leaf, leaflet, leave, leg, lemma, lesion, ligule, lint, load, loads, loot, lot, lots, lump, mane, mass, material, materials, materiel, mess, millions, mint, mint of money, mitral insufficiency, mitral stenosis, molehill, money, mound, mount, mountain, mow, much, munitions, myocardial infarction, myocardial insufficiency, myocarditis, myovascular insufficiency, nap, needle, neutron factory, newel-post, nub, nuclear furnace, oceans, oodles, overwhelm, ox heart, pack, pack away, pack in, packaged house, packet, pale, palisade, palpitation, papula, papule, paralytic stroke, paronychia, paroxysmal tachycardia, parulis, peck, pedestal, pedicel, peduncle, peg, pelt, pericarditis, petal, petechia, picket, pier, pilaster, pile in, pile it on, pile out, pile up, piles, piling, pillar, pimple, pine needle, pit, plenitude, plenty, plethora, plinth, plush, plutonium reactor, pock, pocket, pole, polyp, post, pot, potful, power of money, power reactor, power-breeder reactor, prefab, prefabrication, premature beat, pretty penny, protuberance, provisionment, provisions, pseudoaortic insufficiency, pubescence, pubic hair, pulmonary insufficiency, pulmonary stenosis, pustule, pyramid, pyre, quantity, queen-post, quite a little, radioactive waste, raft, rafts, rations, reactor, reactor pile, repertoire, repertory, rheumatic heart disease, rick, rising, rods, roll, round heart, ruck, sack, scab, scads, sclerosis, seed leaf, sepal, setula, shaft, shag, shank, ship, shock, sight, skyscraper, slew, slews, slow pile, snowdrift, socle, soft chancre, sore, spate, spathe, spear, spile, spire, stack, stack up, stacks, staff, stake, stalk, stanchion, stand, standard, stellarator, stem, stigma, stipula, stipule, stock, stock-in-trade, stockpile, stony heart, store, stores, stow, stroke, structure, sty, subbase, superabundance, superstructure, supplies, supply, supply on hand, suppuration, surbase, surface, surface texture, swansdown, swelling, tachycardia, texture, thistledown, thousands, thrombosis, tidy sum, tons, tower, treasure, treasury, tricuspid insufficiency, tricuspid stenosis, trunk, tubercle, tumulus, turtle heart, ulcer, ulceration, upright, uranium reactor, varicose veins, varix, ventricular fibrillation, wad, wads, wale, wealth, weave, welt, wheal, whelk, whitlow, whole slew, windrow, woof, wool, wound