English
pile
see also: Pile
Pronunciation Noun

pile (plural piles)

  1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
  2. (figuratively, informal) A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
    When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile, and the annoying guy on the "no" pile.
  3. A mass formed in layers.
    a pile of shot
  4. A funeral pile; a pyre.
  5. A large building, or mass of buildings.
    • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, II.2:
      The pile is of a gloomy and massive, rather than of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture […]
    • 1697, John Dryden, The Aeneid
      The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight.
    • '1892, Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved
      It was dark when the four-wheeled cab wherein he had brought Avice from the station stood at the entrance to the pile of flats of which Pierston occupied one floor […]
  6. A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a fagot.
  7. A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals (especially copper and zinc), laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; a voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
  8. An atomic pile; an early form of nuclear reactor.
  9. (obsolete) The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
  10. (figuratively) A list or league
    • Watch Harlequins train and you get some idea of why they are back on top of the pile going into Saturday's rerun of last season's grand final against Leicester.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Verb

pile (piles, present participle piling; past and past participle piled)

  1. (transitive, often used with the preposition "up") To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate
    They were piling up wood on the wheelbarrow.
  2. (transitive) To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
    We piled the camel with our loads.
  3. (transitive) To add something to a great number.
  4. (transitive) (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
  5. (transitive, military) To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Italian: creare un ingorgo
Related terms Noun

pile (plural piles)

  1. (obsolete) A dart; an arrow.
  2. The head of an arrow or spear.
  3. A large stake, or piece of pointed timber, steel etc., driven into the earth or sea-bed for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
  4. (heraldiccharge) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
Translations
  • Italian: punta
  • Russian: наконе́чник
Translations Translations Verb

pile (piles, present participle piling; past and past participle piled)

  1. (transitive) To drive pile#Noun_2|piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
Translations Noun

pile (plural piles)

  1. (usually, in the plural) A hemorrhoid.
Noun

pile

  1. Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
  2. The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
    • 1785, William Cowper, The Task
      Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile.
Translations Verb

pile (piles, present participle piling; past and past participle piled)

  1. (transitive) To give a pile to; to make shaggy.
Pile
Proper noun
  1. Surname


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