pile

¹

[ pahyl ]

noun

1. an assemblage of things laid or lying one upon the other:

   a pile of papers;

   a pile of bricks.

   Synonyms: batch, mound, stack, accumulation, heap, collection, mass

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.

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.

verb (used with object)

, piled, pil·ing.

1. to lay or dispose in a pile (often followed by up ):

   to pile up the fallen autumn leaves.

2. to accumulate or store (often followed by up ):

   to pile up money; squirrels piling up nuts against the winter.

3. to cover or load with a pile:

   He piled the wagon with hay.

verb (used without object)

, piled, pil·ing.

1. to accumulate, as money, debts, evidence, etc. (usually followed by up ).
2. Informal. to move as a group in a more or less confused, disorderly cluster:

   to pile off a train.

3. to gather, accumulate, or rise in a pile or piles (often followed by up ):

   The snow is piling up on the roofs.

verb phrase

1. 1. to add or give in a plentiful or excessive manner: My mother-in-law finds a way to pile on more criticism of my life choices every time we visit.

      This ice cream shop really piles on the toppings.

      My mother-in-law finds a way to pile on more criticism of my life choices every time we visit.

   2. Sports. to jump onto the pile of bodies after an opponent has been brought to the ground and the play has been ended.
   3. to join a hostile group in harshly criticizing or judging a less dominant group or individual, sometimes gloating over that group’s or person's defeat or diminished standing.

pile

²

[ pahyl ]

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)

, piled, pil·ing.

1. to furnish, strengthen, or support with piles.
2. to drive piles into.

pile

³

[ pahyl ]

noun

1. a fabric with a surface of upright yarns, cut or looped, as corduroy, Turkish toweling, velvet, and velveteen.
2. such a surface.
3. one of the strands in such a surface.
4. soft, fine hair or down.
5. wool, fur, or pelage.
6. hair ( def 1 ).

pile

⁴

[ pahyl ]

noun

1. Usually piles. a hemorrhoid.
2. piles, the condition of having hemorrhoids.

pile

⁵

[ pahyl ]

noun

1. the lower of two dies for coining by hand.

pile

¹

/ paɪl /

noun

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

verb

1. to drive (piles) into the ground
2. to provide or support (a structure) with piles

pile

²

/ paɪl /

noun

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

verb

1. often foll by up to collect or be collected into or as if into a pile

   snow piled up in the drive

2. 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

3. pile arms
   to prop a number of rifles together, muzzles together and upwards, butts forming the base
4. pile it on informal.
   to exaggerate

pile

³

/ paɪl /

noun

1. textiles
   1. the yarns in a fabric that stand up or out from the weave, as in carpeting, velvet, flannel, etc
   2. one of these yarns
2. soft fine hair, fur, wool, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of pile¹

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin pīla “pillar, pier, pile of stone”

Origin of pile²

First recorded before 1000; Middle English pil(e) “pointed missile, arrow, dart,” Old English pīl “pointed stick, shaft,” from Latin pīlum “throwing spear, javelin”

Origin of pile³

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English piles “hair, plumage,” from Latin pilus “a hair”

Origin of pile⁴

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English piles, pyles (plural), from Medieval Latin pili (masculine plural), from Latin pilae (feminine plural), literally, “balls” (from their shape); pill ¹

Origin of pile⁵

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English pil, pile, pyl “reverse of a coin,” from Medieval Latin pīla, special use of Latin pīla pile ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of pile¹

Old English pīl, from Latin pīlum

Origin of pile²

C15: via Old French from Latin pīla stone pier

Origin of pile³

C15: from Anglo-Norman pyle, from Latin pilus hair

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. in pile, Heraldry. (of a number of charges) arranged in the manner of a pile.

More idioms and phrases containing pile

• make a bundle (pile)

Example Sentences

I had this idea of being a doctor breathing new life into older clothes or things I would find at the bottom of a pile, resurrecting them.

From Los Angeles Times

It starts with a pile of soy pulp, which is wrapped in banana leaves and sprinkled with the spores of a fungus called Neurospora intermedia.

From Salon

One discarded pile of oat pulp or moldy loaf of bread, at a time.

From Salon

Box springs lay heaped in a pile beneath a folding camp bed, freed by the flames.

From Slate

This is how Lili Anolik found herself digging through the mildewed trash pile of Eve Babitz’s personal effects after her death in late 2021.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• accumulate
• assemble
• collect
• fill
• heap
• load
• stack