GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 6 definitions

1.       
   Pile , n. [L. pilus hair. Cf. Peruke.]
   A hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton, and the like; also, the nap when thick or heavy, as of carpeting and velvet.
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   Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile.
   Cowper.
   
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   (Zool.) A covering of hair or fur.
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2.       
   Pile, n. [L. pilum javelin. See Pile a stake.] The head of an arrow or spear. [Obs.]
   Chapman.
   
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3.       
   Pile, n. [AS. pīl arrow, stake, L. pilum javelin; but cf. also L. pila pillar.]
   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.
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   ☞ Tubular iron piles are now much used.
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   [Cf. F. pile.] (Her.) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
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   Pile bridge, a bridge of which the roadway is supported on piles. -- Pile cap, a beam resting upon and connecting the heads of piles. -- Pile driver, or Pile engine, an apparatus for driving down piles, consisting usually of a high frame, with suitable appliances for raising to a height (by animal or steam power, the explosion of gunpowder, etc.) a heavy mass of iron, which falls upon the pile. -- Pile dwelling. See Lake dwelling, under Lake. -- Pile plank (Hydraul. Eng.), a thick plank used as a pile in sheet piling. See Sheet piling, under Piling. -- Pneumatic pile. See under Pneumatic. -- Screw pile, one with a screw at the lower end, and sunk by rotation aided by pressure.
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4.       
   Pile, v. t. To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
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   To sheet-pile, to make sheet piling in or around. See Sheet piling, under 2nd Piling.
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5.       
   Pile, n. [F. pile, L. pila a pillar, a pier or mole of stone. Cf. Pillar.]
   A mass of things heaped together; a heap; as, a pile of stones; a pile of wood.
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   A mass formed in layers; as, a pile of shot.
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   A funeral pile; a pyre.
   Dryden.
   
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   A large building, or mass of buildings.
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   The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight.
   Dryden.
   
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   (Iron Manuf.) Same as Fagot, n., 2.
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   (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.
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   ☞ 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.
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   [F. pile pile, an engraved die, L. pila a pillar.] The reverse of a coin. See Reverse.
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   Cross and pile. See under Cross. -- Dry pile. See under Dry.
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6.       
   Pile, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Piled ; p. pr. & vb. n. Piling.]
   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.
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   The labor of an age in piled stones.
   Milton.
   
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   To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
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   To pile arms To pile muskets (Mil.), to place three guns together so that they may stand upright, supporting each other; to stack arms.
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