screw pile

American  

noun

1. a pile that is used for the foundations of bridges, lighthouses, etc., and has a screwlike lower end for drilling through and taking firm hold in compacted material.

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screw pile British  

noun

1. a pile with a threaded tip that is screwed into the ground by a winch or capstan

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Other Word Forms

• screw piling
  noun

Etymology

Origin of screw pile

First recorded in 1830–40

Example Sentences

First order, screw pile, about a hundred and twenty feet high, stuck on a coral reef at the mouth of the harbor.

From The Veiled Lady and Other Men and Women by Smith, Francis Hopkinson

The mooring chains, weighing 22 lb per ft., are taken from the upstream end of each pontoon to a downstream screw pile mooring and from the downstream end to an upstream screw pile.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" by Various

At that time a new lighthouse of the screw pile type was built two and one-half miles offshore from Smith Point.

From The Stronghold A Story of Historic Northern Neck of Virginia and Its People by Haynie, Miriam