pile

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Wikipedia

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Noun 1.3.1 Translations 1.4 Verb 1.5 Related terms 1.6 References 1.7 Anagrams 2 Danish 2.1 Pronunciation 2.2 Noun 3 French 3.1 Etymology 3.2 Pronunciation 3.3 Noun 3.4 Adverb 3.5 Anagrams 4 Italian 4.1 Noun 5 Serbo-Croatian 5.1 Etymology 5.2 Noun 5.2.1 Declension 6 Spanish 6.1 Verb

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

Akin to late Old Norse píla (“‘arrow’”) (whence the Danish pil), from Latin pilum (“‘heavy javelin’”).

[edit] Pronunciation

•  Audio (US)^{help, file}
• Rhymes: -aɪl

[edit] Noun

pile (plural piles)

1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap; as, a pile of stones; a pile of wood.
   • 1889, Haggard, Cleopatra:

     I climbed through, and, standing on a pile of stones, lifted and dragged Cleopatra after me. [1]

2. A hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton, and the like; also, the nap when thick or heavy, as of carpeting and velvet.

   Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile. — William Cowper

3. A covering of hair or fur.
4. A large stake, or piece of timber, steel section pointed and driven into the earth or drilled and cast reinforced concrete, as at the bottom of a river, or in a harbor where the ground is soft, for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
   • 1719- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     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.

5. The head of an arrow or spear.
6. (heraldry) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
7. A mass formed in layers; as, a pile of shot.
8. A funeral pile; a pyre.
9. A large building, or mass of buildings.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. The reverse (or tails) of a coin. (Obs)
13. A hemorrhoid (usually it is in plural)

[edit] Translations

[edit] Verb

to pile (third-person singular simple present piles, present participle piling, simple past and past participle piled)

1. (transitive) To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
2. (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.
3. (transitive) To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
4. (transitive) To add something to a great number.
5. (transitive) (of vehicles) To create a hold up.
6. A structure supported on piled foundations

[edit] Related terms

• funeral pile
• pile bridge
• pile driver
• pile cap
• pile up
• pavilion
• reverse

[edit] References

• pile in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

[edit] Anagrams

• Alphagram: eilp
• plié

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[edit] Danish

[edit] Pronunciation

• IPA: /piːlə/, [ˈpʰiːlə]

[edit] Noun

pile c.

1. Plural indefinite of pil.

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[edit] French

[edit] Etymology

Latin pila (through Italian for the battery sense). The tail of a coin sense is probably derived from previous senses, but it's not known for sure.

[edit] Pronunciation

• IPA: /pil/, SAMPA: /pil/

[edit] Noun

pile f. (plural piles)

1. heap
2. pillar
3. battery
4. tail of a coin

[edit] Adverb

pile

1. (colloquial) just, exactly
2. (colloquial) dead (of stopping etc.); on the dot, sharp (of time)

[edit] Anagrams

• Alphagram: eilp
• plie, plié

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[edit] Italian

[edit] Noun

pile f.

1. Plural form of pila.

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[edit] Serbo-Croatian

[edit] Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *pilę.

[edit] Noun

pȉle n. (Cyrillic spelling пи̏ле)

1. chick

[edit] Declension

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[edit] Spanish

[edit] Verb

pile (infinitive: pilar)

1. first-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of pilar.
2. formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of pilar.
3. third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of pilar.