English Explanatory Dictionary

pile

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
  2. A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
  3. A mass formed in layers.
  4. A funeral pile; a pyre.
  5. A large amount of money.
  6. A large building, or mass of buildings.
  7. 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.
  8. A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals (especially copper and zinc), laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; a voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
  9. A beam, pole, or pillar, driven completely into the ground, usually as one of a group that constitutes a foundation.
  10. An atomic pile; an early form of nuclear reactor.
  11. The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
  12. A list or league
verb
  1. To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate
  2. To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
  3. To add something to a great number.
  4. (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
  5. To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.
  6. To form a pile or heap.
noun
  1. 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.
  4. One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
verb
  1. To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
noun
  1. A hemorrhoid.
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.
verb
  1. To give a pile to; to make shaggy.
noun
  1. A battery (simple device for converting chemical potential energy into usable electricity).
  2. A battery consisting of repeated units of alternating types of metal; voltaic pile.
name
  1. A surname.

Pronunciation

/paɪl/ en-us-pile.ogg

Word forms

pile piles piling piled

Etymology

From Middle English pyle, from Old French pile, from Latin pīla (“pillar, pier”).

Synonyms

bundle mint small fortune pile up heap accumulate

Derived words

atomic pile at the bottom of the pile at the top of the pile biopile book piles Bunsen pile cross and pile death pile dogpile dustpile facepile funeral pile gangpile go the whole pile helical pile hook-and-pile fastener junkpile leafpile make a pile micropile mispile monopile muscular pile nuclear pile overpile pig pile piledrive piledriver pile-driving pileless pilement pile of crap pile of cunt pile of poo pile of shit piler pile shoe pilewise pilework pileworm pily polypile puppy pile repile rockpile rubble pile sandpile shagpile shitpile slash pile slushpile slush pile snowpile stockpile subpile three-pile turdpile unpile uppile wastepile
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