a machine for driving piles, usually composed of a tall framework in which either a weight is raised and dropped on a pile head or in which a steam hammer drives the pile.
a person who operates such a machine.
a person who hits or attacks forcefully or powerfully.
Wrestling. a move whereby an opponent is turned upside down and slammed headfirst to the mat.
British Sports. a powerful stroke, hit, kick, etc.
a machine that drives piles into the ground either by repeatedly allowing a heavy weight to fall on the head of the pile or by using a steam hammer
informal a forceful punch or kick
First recorded in 1765–75
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Once the workers remove the last piles from the old pier, they’ll use a vibratory pile driver to install about 120 new steel piles.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 27, 2022
“I don’t understand why it is like this all day,” Yesenia Diaz shouted, as a pile driver pounded foundations into the tan earth a few hundred feet away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2021
Perforated pipes encircle the pile driver, blowing a wall of air bubbles that absorb and refract the noise, reducing it by as much as 15 dB.
From Scientific American ● Feb. 23, 2021
Early on, John Roberts—who was thought at least to be suggestible on the question on whether Texas has standing to bring suit—performs a pile driver on Solicitor General Donald Verrilli.
From Slate ● Apr. 18, 2016
Then the water hit him, in the side; it was like the blow of a pile driver.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
Rooke threw off the Russian with an elbow, giving the defender a black eye, and hit a pile-driver from 25 yards that flew past Khomich.
From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2020
In the second round he made an astonishing save in stoppage time to push clear a 35-metre pile-driver by Colombia’s Mateus Uribe that was heading for the top corner.
From Reuters ● Jul. 7, 2018
After intermission, Franz Welser-Möst led a pile-driver account of Shostakovich’s hysterical, apocalyptic Fourth Symphony.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 14, 2016
It is a brilliant sport, though, a cross between basketball and five-a-side football that revolves around its array of bravura close-in finishes: the pile-driver, the slot to the corner, even the cheeky dink, the palm-Pirlo.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 6, 2012
When of small size the pipe is driven by a heavy hammer; for deep and large holes, a light pile-driver becomes necessary.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Slice 3 "Borgia, Lucrezia" to "Bradford, John" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
