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pile

1. 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. . Life piled on life. . The labour of an age in piled stones. (milton)

2. To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load. To pile arms or muskets, to place three guns together so that they may stand upright, supporting each other; to stack arms.

Origin: Piled; Piling.

1. A hair; hence, the fibre of wool, cotton, and the like; also, the nap when thick or heavy, as of carpeting and velvet. Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile. (Cowper)

2. (Science: zoology) A covering of hair or fur.

Origin: L. Pilus hair. Cf. Peruke.

1. 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.

tubular iron piles are now much used.

2. [Cf. F. Pile.

One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost. 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.

(Science: physics) Pile plank, a thick plank used as a pile in sheet piling. See Sheet piling, under Piling. Pneumatic pile. See Pneumatic. Screw pile, one with a screw at the lower end, and sunk by rotation aided by pressure.

Origin: AS. Pil arrow, stake, L. Pilum javelin; but cf. Also L. Pila pillar.

1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap; as, a pile of stones; a pile of wood.

2. A mass formed in layers; as, a pile of shot.

3. A funeral pile; a pyre.

4. A large building, or mass of buildings. The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight. (Dryden)

5. Same as Fagot.

6. (Science: physics) 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.

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.

7. [F. Pile pile, an engraved die, L. Pila a pillar] The reverse of a coin. See Reverse. Cross and pile. See Cross. Dry pile. See Dry.

Origin: F. Pile, L. Pila a pillar, a pier or mole of stone. Cf. Pi 3f5 llar.