pile
1an assemblage of things laid or lying one upon the other: a pile of papers;a pile of bricks.
Informal. a large number, quantity, or amount of anything: a pile of work.
a heap of wood on which a dead body, a living person, or a sacrifice is burned; pyre.
a lofty or large building or group of buildings: the noble pile of Windsor Castle.
Informal. a large accumulation of money: They made a pile on Wall Street.
a bundle of pieces of iron ready to be welded and drawn out into bars; fagot.
Electricity. voltaic pile.
to lay or dispose in a pile (often followed by up): to pile up the fallen autumn leaves.
to accumulate or store (often followed by up): to pile up money; squirrels piling up nuts against the winter.
to cover or load with a pile: He piled the wagon with hay.
to accumulate, as money, debts, evidence, etc. (usually followed by up).
Informal. to move as a group in a more or less confused, disorderly cluster: to pile off a train.
to gather, accumulate, or rise in a pile or piles (often followed by up): The snow is piling up on the roofs.
pile on,
to add or give in a plentiful or excessive manner: 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.
Sports. to jump onto the pile of bodies after an opponent has been brought to the ground and the play has been ended.
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.
Origin of pile
1Other words for pile
Words Nearby pile
Other definitions for pile (2 of 5)
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.
Heraldry. an ordinary in the form of a wedge or triangle coming from one edge of the escutcheon, from the chief unless otherwise specified.
Archery. the sharp head or striking end of an arrow, usually of metal and of the form of a wedge or conical nub.
to furnish, strengthen, or support with piles.
to drive piles into.
Origin of pile
2Other definitions for pile (3 of 5)
a fabric with a surface of upright yarns, cut or looped, as corduroy, Turkish toweling, velvet, and velveteen.
such a surface.
one of the strands in such a surface.
soft, fine hair or down.
wool, fur, or pelage.
Origin of pile
3Other definitions for pile (4 of 5)
Usually piles . a hemorrhoid.
piles, the condition of having hemorrhoids.
Origin of pile
4Other definitions for pile (5 of 5)
the lower of two dies for coining by hand.
Origin of pile
5Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use pile in a sentence
The player whose card has a higher rank wins the turn and places both cards on the bottom of their pile.
At tables spread out around a room, citizen scientists of all ages and all backgrounds inspected piles of scat.
Are coyotes moving into your neighborhood? | Kathryn Hulick | September 3, 2020 | Science News For StudentsThey’ll slice apples and cheese with aplomb, but if you use one to try and cut up a pile of cardboard, it’ll be dull by the end of that task.
Three Questions to Ask Yourself Before Buying a Knife | Wes Siler | September 3, 2020 | Outside OnlineRight now, those piles present a fire risk and are costly to manage.
California and the Forest Service have a plan to prevent future catastrophic fires | Ula Chrobak | August 27, 2020 | Popular-ScienceIf there’s a pile of sand, you intuitively know this is a pile of sand.
What Is an Individual? Biology Seeks Clues in Information Theory. | Jordana Cepelewicz | July 16, 2020 | Quanta Magazine
What you see is a massive, well-intentioned, legal junk pile.
The correspondent does a stand-up next to a burning pile of heroin and gets a taste of its effect.
BBC Reporter Gets High On The Job | Jack Holmes, The Daily Beast Video | December 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTHitchcock leans toward me in a conspiratorial, almost lascivious, way and says, “Let's pile on the menace.”
Alfred Hitchcock’s Fade to Black: The Great Director’s Final Days | David Freeman | December 13, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTPre-sizing eliminates the opportunity to pile those taters too high.
12 Thanksgiving Weight Loss Tips That Actually Work | DailyBurn | November 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTInside a box I could see a pile of whips, chains, ball gags, and hoods.
It is a lofty and richly-decorated pile of the fourteenth century; and tells of the labours and the wealth of a foreign land.
They soon had a large pile heaped up in the middle of the road which led through the forest.
The Nursery, July 1873, Vol. XIV. No. 1 | VariousA-course, Mrs. Bridger got a nice little pile of money fer it, and paid Curry the balance she owed him.
Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher | Eleanor GatesEven Konnel had a small pile before him, although he seemed to be losing some of Lilac's attention to Meadows.
Fee of the Frontier | Horace Brown Fyfe"There was a pile of 'em that high, Mark," said Perry, waving his hands about a foot above the table.
The Soldier of the Valley | Nelson Lloyd
British Dictionary definitions for pile (1 of 3)
/ (paɪl) /
a collection of objects laid on top of one another or of other material stacked vertically; heap; mound
informal a large amount of money (esp in the phrase make a pile)
(often plural) informal a large amount: a pile of work
a less common word for pyre
a large building or group of buildings
short for voltaic pile
physics a structure of uranium and a moderator used for producing atomic energy; nuclear reactor
metallurgy an arrangement of wrought-iron bars that are to be heated and worked into a single bar
the point of an arrow
(often foll by up) to collect or be collected into or as if into a pile: snow piled up in the drive
(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
pile arms to prop a number of rifles together, muzzles together and upwards, butts forming the base
pile it on informal to exaggerate
Origin of pile
1- See also pile up
British Dictionary definitions for pile (2 of 3)
/ (paɪl) /
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)
heraldry an ordinary shaped like a wedge, usually displayed point-downwards
to drive (piles) into the ground
to provide or support (a structure) with piles
Origin of pile
2British Dictionary definitions for pile (3 of 3)
/ (paɪl) /
textiles
the yarns in a fabric that stand up or out from the weave, as in carpeting, velvet, flannel, etc
one of these yarns
soft fine hair, fur, wool, etc
Origin of pile
3Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with pile
In addition to the idioms beginning with pile
- pile into
- pile up
also see:
- make a bundle (pile)
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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