pile
pronunciation
How to pronounce pile in British English:
UK [paɪl]
How to pronounce pile in American English:
US [paɪl]
-
- Noun:
- a collection of objects laid on top of each other
- (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
- a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit)
- fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)
- battery consisting of voltaic cells arranged in series; the earliest electric battery devised by Volta
- a column of wood or steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure
- the yarn (as in a rug or velvet or corduroy) that stands up from the weave
- a nuclear reactor that uses controlled nuclear fission to generate energy
-
- Verb:
- arrange in stacks
- press tightly together or cram
- place or lay as if in a pile
Word Origin
- pile
- pile: English has three words pile. The commonest, ‘heap’ [15], originally meant ‘pillar’. It comes ultimately from Latin pīla ‘pillar’, source also of English pilaster, pillar, etc. This evolved in meaning to ‘pier or harbour wall made of stones’, and inspired a derived verb pīlāre ‘heap up’ (source of English compile [14]).The sense ‘heap’ came to the fore in Old French pile, and passed into English. Pile ‘post driven into the ground’ [OE] was borrowed into Old English from Latin pīlum ‘javelin’. It was originally used for a ‘throwing spear’, ‘arrow’, or ‘spike’, and its present-day use did not emerge (via ‘pointed stake or post’) until the Middle English period. Pile ‘nap on cloth, carpets, etc’ [15] probably comes via Anglo-Norman pyle from Latin pilus ‘hair’ (which may be distantly related to English pillage and pluck, and lies behind English depilatory [17]).=> compile, pilaster, pillar; depilatory
- pile (n.1)
- "mass, heap," early 15c., originally "pillar, pier of a bridge," from Middle French pile and directly from Latin pila "stone barrier, pillar, pier" (see pillar). Sense development in Latin from "pier, harbor wall of stones," to "something heaped up." In English, sense of "heap of things" is attested from mid-15c. (the verb in this sense is recorded from mid-14c.). The meaning "large building" (late 14c.) is probably the same word.
- pile (n.2)
- "heavy pointed beam," from Old English pil "stake," also "arrow," from Latin pilum heavy javelin of the Roman foot soldier, literally "pestle" (source of Old Norse pila, Old High German pfil, German Pfeil "arrow"), of uncertain origin.
- pile (n.3)
- "soft, raised surface upon cloth," mid-14c., "downy plumage," from Anglo-French pyle or Middle Dutch pijl, both from Latin pilus "a hair" (source of Italian pelo, Old French pel). Phonological evidence rules out transmission of the English word via Old French cognate peil, poil. Meaning "nap upon cloth" is from 1560s.
- pile (v.)
- "to heap up," mid-14c.; see pile (n.1). Related: Piled; piling. Figurative verbal expression pile on "attack vigorously, attack en masse," is from 1894, American English.
Example
- 1. A worker throws a computer casing onto a pile .
- 2. On a lonely table stood a foot-high pile of exotic fruits .
- 3. A pile of private capital has been attracted to build new power stations .
- 4. They send a pile of old invoice to be shred .
- 5. This voltaic pile produced continuous electrical current .