Related Searches
Nearby Words
Synonyms
Synonym Game
affluence
mountain
assemble
amass
crush
fill
rush
PLAY

pile

 [pahyl]   Example Sentences Origin

pile

1   [pahyl] noun, verb, piled, pil·ing.
noun
1.
an assemblage of things laid or lying one upon the other: a pile of papers; a pile of bricks.
2.
Informal. a large number, quantity, or amount of anything: a pile of work.
3.
a heap of wood on which a dead body, a living person, or a sacrifice is burned; pyre.
4.
a lofty or large building or group of buildings: the noble pile of Windsor Castle.
5.
Informal. a large accumulation of money: They made a pile on Wall Street.
EXPAND
6.
a bundle of pieces of iron ready to be welded and drawn out into bars; fagot.
7.
reactor (def. 4).
8.
Electricity. voltaic pile.
COLLAPSE
Top Hemorrhoids Treatment www.nationalhemorrhoiddirectory.org/ Compare the leading hemorrhoids treatments before you buy
Ad
verb (used with object)
9.
to lay or dispose in a pile (often followed by up): to pile up the fallen autumn leaves.
10.
to accumulate or store (often followed by up): to pile up money; squirrels piling up nuts against the winter.
11.
to cover or load with a pile: He piled the wagon with hay.

00:10

00:09

00:08

00:07

00:06

00:05

00:04

00:03

00:02

00:01

Pile is one of our favorite verbs.
So is lollygag. Does it mean:
to flee; abscond:
to spend time idly; loaf.
LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
verb (used without object)
12.
to accumulate, as money, debts, evidence, etc. (usually followed by up).
13.
Informal. to move as a group in a more or less confused, disorderly cluster: to pile off a train.
14.
to gather, accumulate, or rise in a pile or piles (often followed by up): The snow is piling up on the roofs.
Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English < Middle French < Latin pīla pillar, mole of stone

Synonyms
1. collection, heap, mass, accumulation, stack, mound, batch.

Example Sentences
  • If that same smell interrupts our next summer idyll, the compost pile is history.
  • Composting requires a contained area, either a section of yard for a compost pile or a compost bin.
  • It was nothing more than a pile of rocks with one wall standing after a fashion.
EXPAND
Dictionary.com Unabridged

pile

2   [pahyl] noun, verb, piled, pil·ing.
noun
1.
a cylindrical or flat member of wood, steel, concrete, etc., often tapered or pointed at the lower end, hammered vertically into soil to form part of a foundation or retaining wall.
2.
Heraldry. an ordinary in the form of a wedge or triangle coming from one edge of the escutcheon, from the chief unless otherwise specified.
3.
Archery. the sharp head or striking end of an arrow, usually of metal and of the form of a wedge or conical nub.
verb (used with object)
4.
to furnish, strengthen, or support with piles.
5.
to drive piles into.
Idiom
6.
in pile, Heraldry. (of a number of charges) arranged in the manner of a pile.
Origin:
before 1000; Middle English; Old English pīl shaft < Latin pīlum javelin

pile

3   [pahyl]
noun
1.
hair.
2.
soft, fine hair or down.
3.
wool, fur, or pelage.
4.
a fabric with a surface of upright yarns, cut or looped, as corduroy, Turkish toweling, velvet, and velveteen.
5.
such a surface.
EXPAND
6.
one of the strands in such a surface.
COLLAPSE
Origin:
1300–50; Middle English piles hair, plumage < Latin pilus hair; -i- short in L but long in Anglicized school pronunciation

pile

4   [pahyl]
noun Usually, piles.
1.
a hemorrhoid.
2.
the condition of having hemorrhoids.
Origin:
1375–1425; late Middle English pyles (plural) < Latin pilae literally, balls. See pill1

pile

5   [pahyl]
noun
the lower of two dies for coining by hand.
Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English pyl reverse of a coin < Medieval Latin pīla, special use of Latin pīla pile1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To PILE
Collins
World English Dictionary
pile1 (paɪl)
 
—n
1.  a collection of objects laid on top of one another or of other material stacked vertically; heap; mound
2.  informal a large amount of money (esp in the phrase make a pile)
3.  informal (often plural) a large amount: a pile of work
4.  a less common word for pyre
5.  a large building or group of buildings
6.  short for voltaic pile
7.  physics a structure of uranium and a moderator used for producing atomic energy; nuclear reactor
8.  metallurgy an arrangement of wrought-iron bars that are to be heated and worked into a single bar
9.  the point of an arrow
 
—vb
10.  (often foll by up) to collect or be collected into or as if into a pile: snow piled up in the drive
11.  (intr; foll by in, into, off, out, etc) to move in a group, esp in a hurried or disorganized manner: to pile off the bus
12.  pile arms to prop a number of rifles together, muzzles together and upwards, butts forming the base
13.  informal pile it on to exaggerate
 
[C15: via Old French from Latin pīla stone pier]

pile2 (paɪl)
 
—n
1.  a long column of timber, concrete, or steel that is driven into the ground to provide a foundation for a vertical load (a bearing pile) or a group of such columns to resist a horizontal load from earth or water pressure (a sheet pile)
2.  heraldry an ordinary shaped like a wedge, usually displayed point-downwards
 
—vb
3.  to drive (piles) into the ground
4.  to provide or support (a structure) with piles
 
[Old English pīl, from Latin pīlum]

pile3 (paɪl)
 
—n
1.  textiles
 a.  the yarns in a fabric that stand up or out from the weave, as in carpeting, velvet, flannel, etc
 b.  one of these yarns
2.  soft fine hair, fur, wool, etc
 
[C15: from Anglo-Norman pyle, from Latin pilus hair]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

pile
"mass, heap," early 15c., "pillar, pier of a bridge," from L. pila "stone barrier." Sense development in Latin from "pier, harbor wall of stones," to "something heaped up." In Eng., sense of "heap of things" is attested from mid-15c. (the verb in this sense is recorded from mid-14c.). The meaning "large
EXPAND
building" (late 14c.) is probably also derived from this word. Pile on "attack vigorously" is from 1894, Amer.Eng. Pile-up "multi-vehicle crash" first recorded 1929.

pile
"heavy pointed beam," from O.E. pil "stake," also "arrow," from L. pilum heavy javelin of the Roman foot soldier, lit. "pestle" (source of O.N. pila, Ger. Pfeil "arrow"). Pile-driver in the fig. sense of "very strong hit" is recorded from 1958.

pile
"soft, raised surface upon cloth," mid-14c., from Anglo-Norm. pyle or M.Du. pijl, both from L. pilus "hair." Phonological evidence rules out transmission via O.Fr. cognate peil, poil.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

pile (pīl)
n.
A hemorrhoid.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary

pile definition


  1. n.
    a large amount of money. : That old lady has a pile stashed in the bank.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary

PILE definition


1. Polytechnic's Instructional Language for Educators. Similar in use to an enhanced PILOT, but structurally more like Pascal with Awk-like associative arrays (optionally stored on disk). Distributed to about 50 sites by Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation for Apple II and CP/M.
["A Universal Computer Aided Instruction System," Henry G. Dietz & Ronald J Juels, Proc Natl Educ Computing Conf '83, pp.279-282].
2. ["PILE _ A Language for Sound Synthesis", P. Berg, Computer Music Journal 3.1, 1979].
(1999-06-04)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

pile

In addition to the idioms beginning with pile, also see make a bundle (pile).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Slang
make a pile
Idioms & Phrases
pile
make a bundle (pile)
MORE
Images for PILE
Partners:WordBloglinesCitysearchThe Daily BeastAsk AnswersAsk KidsLife123SendoriThesaurus
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.
About Privacy Policy Terms of Use API Careers Advertise with Us Contact Us Help
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT