What does pile mean?

Definitions for pile
paɪlpile

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word pile.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. pile, heap, mound, agglomerate, cumulation, cumulusnoun

    a collection of objects laid on top of each other

  2. 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, wadnoun

    (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"

  3. pile, bundle, big bucks, megabucks, big moneynoun

    a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit)

    "she made a bundle selling real estate"; "they sank megabucks into their new house"

  4. down, pilenoun

    fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)

  5. voltaic pile, pile, galvanic pilenoun

    battery consisting of voltaic cells arranged in series; the earliest electric battery devised by Volta

  6. pile, spile, piling, stiltnoun

    a column of wood or steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure

  7. pile, napnoun

    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"

  8. atomic pile, atomic reactor, pile, chain reactorverb

    a nuclear reactor that uses controlled nuclear fission to generate energy

  9. stack, pile, heapverb

    arrange in stacks

    "heap firewood around the fireplace"; "stack your books up on the shelves"

  10. throng, mob, pack, pile, jamverb

    press tightly together or cram

    "The crowd packed the auditorium"

  11. pileverb

    place or lay as if in a pile

    "The teacher piled work on the students until the parents protested"

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Pilenoun

    Etymology: pile, Fr. pyle, Dutch.

    The bridge the Turks before broke, by plucking up of certain piles, and taking away of the planks. Richard Knolles.

    If the ground be hollow or weak, he strengthens it by driving in piles. Joseph Moxon.

    The foundation of the church of Harlem is supported by wooden piles, as the houses in Amsterdam are. John Locke.

    That is the way to lay the city flat,
    And bury all which yet distinctly ranges
    In heaps and piles of ruin. William Shakespeare.

    What piles of wealth hath he accumulated
    To his own portion! what expence by th’ honr
    Seems to flow from him! how i’ th’ name of thrift,
    Does he rake this together. William Shakespeare.

    By the water passing through the stone to its perpendicular intervals, was brought thither all the metallic matter now lodged therein, as well as that which lies only in an undigested and confused pile. John Woodward.

    I’ll bear your logs the while; pray give me it,
    I’ll carry’t to the pile. William Shakespeare, Tempest.

    Woe to the bloody city, I will even make the pile for fire great. Ezekiel xxiv. 9.

    In Alexander’s time, the Indian philosophers, when weary of living, lay down upon their funeral pile without any visible concern. Jeremy Collier, on the Value of Life.

    The wife, and counsellor or priest,
    Prepare and light his fun’ral fire,
    And cheerful on the pile expire. Matthew Prior.

    Th’ ascending pile stood fix’d her stately height. John Milton.

    Not to look back so far, to whom this isle
    Owes the first glory of so brave a pile. John Denham.

    The pile o’erlook’d the town, and drew the sight. Dryd.

    Fancy brings the vanish’d piles to view,
    And builds imaginary Rome anew. Alexander Pope, Miscellanies.

    No longer shall forsaken Thames
    Lament his old Whitehall in flames;
    A pile shall from its ashes rise,
    Fit to invade or prop the skies. Jonathan Swift, Miscellanies.

    Yonder’s my lord, with a patch of velvet on’s face; his left cheek is a cheek of two pile and a half, but his right cheek is worn bare. William Shakespeare, All’s well that ends well.

    Many other sorts of stones are regularly figured; the amianthus of parallel threads, as in the pile of velvet. Nehemiah Grew.

    His spear a bent,
    The pile was of a horse fly’s tongue,
    Whose sharpness nought revers’d. Michael Drayton, Nymph.

    Other men have been, and are of the same opinion, a man may more justifiably throw up cross and pile for his opinions, than take them up so. John Locke.

    Wherever there is any uneasiness, solicit the humours towards that part, to procure the piles, which seldom miss to relieve the head. Arbuthnot.

  2. To Pileverb

    The fabrick of his folly, whose foundation
    Is pil’d upon his faith, and will continue
    The standing of his body. William Shakespeare, Winter’s Tale.

    Let them pull all about my ears,
    Pile ten hills on the Tarpeian rock,
    That the precipitation might downstretch
    Below the beam of sight, yet will I still
    Be thus. William Shakespeare.

    Against beleagur’d heav’n the giants move;
    Hills pil’d on hills, on mountains mountains lie,
    To make their mad approaches to the sky. Dryden.

    Men pil’d on men, with active leaps arise,
    And build the breathing fabrick to the skies. Addison.

    In all that heap of quotations which he has piled up, nothing is aimed at. Francis Atterbury.

    All these together are the foundation of all those heaps of comments, which are piled so high upon authors, that it is difficult sometimes to clear the text from the rubbish. Henry Felton.

    Attabaliba had a great house piled upon the sides with great wedges of gold. George Abbot, Descript. of the World.

ChatGPT

  1. pile

    A pile is a stack or collection of items laid on top of one another, or a heap of particular materials. In the context of construction, a pile can also refer to a heavy beam or post driven into the ground to support a structure.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Pilenoun

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

  2. Pilenoun

    a covering of hair or fur

  3. Pilenoun

    the head of an arrow or spear

  4. Pilenoun

    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

  5. Pilenoun

    one of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost

  6. Pileverb

    to drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles

  7. Pilenoun

    a mass of things heaped together; a heap; as, a pile of stones; a pile of wood

  8. Pilenoun

    a mass formed in layers; as, a pile of shot

  9. Pilenoun

    a funeral pile; a pyre

  10. Pilenoun

    a large building, or mass of buildings

  11. Pilenoun

    same as Fagot, n., 2

  12. Pilenoun

    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

  13. Pilenoun

    the reverse of a coin. See Reverse

  14. Pileverb

    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

  15. Pileverb

    to cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load

  16. Etymology: [L. pilus hair. Cf. Peruke.]

Wikidata

  1. Pile

    Pile weave is a form of textile created by weaving. Pile fabrics used to be made on traditional hand weaving machines. The warp ends that are used for the formation of the pile are woven over metal rods or wires that are inserted in the shed during weaving. The pile ends lie in loops over the inserted rods. When a rod is extracted the pile ends remain as loops on top of the base fabric. The pile ends lying over the rod may be left as 'loop pile', or cut to form 'cut pile' or velvet. On mechanical looms the technology of 'wire weaving' still exists, using modern technology and electronics. This weaving technique allows users to obtain both loop pile and cut pile in the same fabric. Other techniques involve the weaving of two layers of fabric on top of each other, whereby the warp ends used for the pile are inserted in such a way that they form a vertical connection between the two layers of fabric. By cutting the pile ends in between the two layers one obtains two separate pile fabrics. With this technique only the cut pile effect can be obtained. This is known as 'face-to-face weaving'. Both 'wire weaving' and 'face-to-face' weaving are used for the manufacturing of upholstery and furnishing fabrics as well as in rug making.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Pile

    pīl, n. a roundish mass: a heap of separate objects: combustibles, esp. for burning dead bodies: a large building: a heap of shot or shell: (elect.) a form of battery consisting of a number of dissimilar metal plates laid in pairs one above another, with an acid solution between them: (slang) a large amount of money: a fortune.—v.t. to lay in a pile or heap: to collect in a mass: to heap up: to fill above the brim.—n. Pī′ler, one who forms into a heap.—Pile arms, to place three muskets with fixed bayonets so that the butts remain firm, the muzzles close together pointing obliquely—also Stack arms. [Fr.,—L. pĭla, a ball.]

  2. Pile

    pīl, n. a pillar: a large stake driven into the earth to support foundations: a pyramidal figure in a heraldic bearing.—v.t. to drive piles into.—ns. Pile′-driv′er, Pile′-en′gine, an engine for driving down piles; Pile′-dwell′ing, a dwelling built on piles, a lake-dwelling; Pile′work, work or foundations made of piles; Pile′-worm, a worm found eating into the timber of piles and ships: the teredo. [A.S. píl—L. pīla, a pillar.]

  3. Pile

    pīl, n. hair, fur: the nap on cloth, esp. if regular and closely set.—v.t. to furnish with pile, to make shaggy.—adj. Pile′-worn, worn threadbare. [O. Fr. peil, poil—L. pĭlus, a hair.]

The Standard Electrical Dictionary

  1. Pile

    A galvanic or voltaic battery. It is sometimes restricted to a number of voltaic couples connected. It should be only applied to batteries with superimposed plates and no containing vessel such as the Dry Pile, q. v., or Volta's Pile, q. v.

Dictionary of Nautical Terms

  1. pile

    A pyramid of shot or shell.--To pile arms, is to plant three fire-locks together, and unite the ramrods, to steady the outspread butt-ends of the pieces resting on the ground. A pile is also a beam of wood driven into the ground to form by a number a solid foundation for building upon. A sheeting-pile has more breadth than thickness, and is much used in constructing coffer-dams.

Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

  1. pile

    A beam of wood driven into the ground to form a solid foundation for building. Also a heap, as a pile of balls. Balls are piled according to kind and caliber, under cover if practicable, in a place where there is a free circulation of air, to facilitate which the piles should be made narrow if the locality permits; the width of the bottom tier may be from twelve to fourteen balls, according to the caliber. Prepare the ground for the base of the pile by raising it above the surrounding ground so as to throw off the water; level it, ram it well, and cover it with a layer of screened sand. Make the bottom of the pile with a tier of unserviceable balls buried about two-thirds of their diameter in the sand; this base may be made permanent; clean the base well and form the pile, putting the fuze-holes of shells downwards, in the intervals, and not resting on the shells below. Each pile is marked with the number of serviceable balls it contains. The base may be made of bricks, concrete, stone, or with borders and braces of iron. Grape- and canister-shot should be oiled or lackered, put in piles, or in strong boxes, on the ground-floor, or in dry cellars; each parcel marked with its kind, caliber, and number.

  2. pile

    In heraldry, one of the lesser ordinaries, having the form of a wedge, usually placed pale-wise, with the broadest end uppermost, resembling a pile used in laying the foundations of buildings in watery places, whence it has its name.

  3. pile

    The head of an arrow was formerly so called.

Suggested Resources

  1. PILE

    What does PILE stand for? -- Explore the various meanings for the PILE acronym on the Abbreviations.com website.

Entomology

  1. Pile

    a hairy or fur-like covering: in Diptera, applied to thick, fine, short, erect hair, giving a surface appearance like velvet.

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. PILE

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Pile is ranked #19296 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Pile surname appeared 1,403 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Pile.

    78.9% or 1,107 total occurrences were White.
    13.9% or 196 total occurrences were Black.
    3.5% or 50 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    1.9% or 27 total occurrences were Asian.

British National Corpus

  1. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'pile' in Written Corpus Frequency: #3477

  2. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'pile' in Nouns Frequency: #1667

  3. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'pile' in Verbs Frequency: #1067

How to pronounce pile?

How to say pile in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of pile in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of pile in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of pile in a Sentence

  1. Rebekah Heiner of Newport News:

    I sent my husband out with the leaf blower a couple months ago to clear the backyard of all the leaves that had fallen off our tree, and when I peeked outside, I found my daughter and husband jumping through the pile and throwing leaves at each other. It certainly made me smile and was a good reminder not to take life too seriously.

  2. Thomas Alva Edison:

    To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

  3. Clay Bonnyman:

    There's tons and tons of veterans, tons and tons of families that are trying to get records, that those requests, they're just going to pile up and pile up and pile up and who knows if they'll ever be fulfilled.

  4. Andre Malraux:

    What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.

  5. Atsuo Ito:

    The decision for Amari to quit was made promptly and seemed almost clear cut, so that didn't harm ratings so much, but if a lot of other things pile up, it's inevitable that voters get the impression the administration is growing sloppy -- and I think that impression is strengthening.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

pile#10000#10302#100000

Translations for pile

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"pile." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/pile>.

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