pile
pile (pīl)
noun
- a mass of things heaped together; heap
- a heap of wood or other combustible material on which a corpse or sacrifice is burned
- a large building or group of buildings
- Informal
- a large amount or number
- ☆ a lot of money; fortune
- Elec. a voltaic pile or any other similar device that produces an electric current; battery
- ☆ nuclear reactor
Etymology: ME < MFr < L pila, pillar
transitive verb piled, pil′·ing
- to put or set in a pile; heap up
- to cover with a pile; load
- to accumulate
- to crash, wreck, etc.
intransitive verb
- to form a pile or heap
- to move in a mass; crowd: with in, into, out, on, off, etc.
- to crash (into)
pile (pīl)
noun
- a soft, velvety, raised surface on a rug, fabric, etc., produced by making yarn loops on the body of the material and, often, shearing them
- soft, fine hair, as on wool, fur, etc.
Etymology: ME pile, bird's down < L pilus, hair < IE base *pilo- > L pila, ball, Gr pilos, felt
pile (pīl)
noun
- a long, heavy timber or beam driven into the ground, sometimes under water, to support a bridge, dock, etc.
- any similar supporting member, as of concrete
- Heraldry a wedge-shaped bearing with the point usually downward
Etymology: ME pil < OE, akin to Ger pfeil < WGmc borrowing < L pilum, javelin
transitive verb piled, pil′·ing
- to drive piles into
- to support or strengthen with piles
pile
v.
To amass
hoard, store, gather; see accumulate 1.To place one upon another
rank, stack, bunch; see heap 1.
Object
- rig: The southern end of the site - two piling rigs are being used.
Converse of object
- totter: All this is a great tottering pile balanced on a ball, a ball that is about to start rolling downhill.
Preposition: on
- pound: How can I survive special events without piling on the pounds?
Adjective modifier
- bored: A piling company is to install bored piles in clay.
- neat: There, resting at the bottom of the case, was a neat pile of CDs.
- huge: He has just a week to deliver a huge pile of food to Vincent the bear's cave otherwise Vincent will eat RJ alive.
Modifies a noun
- carpet: She designed the interior rooms with Roman columns imported from Italy, deep pile carpets and ceilings swathed in 300 meters of fabric.
- rug: Do not use this method for anything other than wool pile rugs.
Noun used with modifier
- slush: For example, John Jarrold bought only two unsolicited novels from the slush pile in the last 7 years.
- shag: It's the 1970s - Twiglets, flares and shag pile carpet.
- boulder: The rift drops over jammed boulders to a mud floored boulder pile sloping downstream to a roaring streamway all of 2 meters long.
- outgrade: Reports do suggest that there are fewer outgrade piles around this season.
- rubble: If you put small log and rubble piles near a pond that will provide hibernation habitat for amphibians.
- manure: Otherwise, we will be thrown out to a worse place than the manure pile.
Preposition: of
- rubble: There were piles of rubble on this other track, some of which may have been wartime.
- rubbish: DEVELOPMENT: Leader: What a pile of rubbish!
- poo: Gary Saunders, Southampton I don't think the CityRover is a " pile of poo " .
- crap: I wouldn't even be surprised to discover whoever designed this pile of crap is a scaffolder by trade.
- junk: Gathering small piles of junk together gives one large pile of junk.
Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show Of touch or marble, nor canst boast a row Of polished pillars, or a roof of gold; Thou hast no lantern whereof tales are told, Or stair, or courts; but standst an ancient pile, And these grudged at, art reverenced the while.
