pile Meaning, Definition & Usage

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

WordNet

Pile noun
Etymology
L. pilus hair. Cf. Peruke.
Definitions
  1. 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. Cowper.
  2. (Zoöl.) A covering of hair or fur.
Pile noun
Etymology
L. pilum javelin. See Pile a stake.
Definitions
  1. The head of an arrow or spear. Obs. Chapman.
Pile noun
Etymology
AS. pil arrow, stake, L. pilum javelin; but cf. also L. pila pillar.
Definitions
  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, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc. ✍ Tubular iron piles are now much used.
  2. Cf. F. pile. (Her.) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
Pile transitive verb
Definitions
  1. To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
Pile noun
Etymology
F. pile, L. pila a pillar, a pier or mole of stone. Cf. Pillar.
Definitions
  1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap; as, a pile of stones; a pile of wood.
  2. A mass formed in layers; as, a pile of shot.
  3. A funeral pile; a pyre. Dryden.
  4. A large building, or mass of buildings.
    The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight. Dryden.
  5. (Iron Manuf.) Same as Fagot, n., 2.
  6. (Elec.) 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. ✍ The term is sometimes applied to other forms of apparatus designed to produce a current of electricity, or as synonymous with battery; as, for instance, to an apparatus for generating a current of electricity by the action of heat, usually called a thermopile.
  7. F. pile pile, an engraved die, L. pila a pillar. The reverse of a coin. See Reverse.
Pile transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Piled ; present participle & verbal noun Piling
Definitions
  1. 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. "Hills piled on hills." Dryden. "Life piled on life." Tennyson.
    The labor of an age in piled stones. Milton.
  2. To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.

Webster 1913