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.
“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
At first blush, then, the only unpredictable thing about the opening track of Dacus’ new Historian is what a pile driver of a breakup song it is.
From Slate ● Mar. 7, 2018
In 1870, Seattle selects its first mayor: Henry Atkins, a pile driver who helped build docks and wharves on Puget Sound.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 2016
Will closed his eyes and let himself just remember his dad: his dad throwing him across his parents’ king-size bed, pretending to wrestle, doing a Jerry Lawler pile driver and then a Sgt.
From "Nine, Ten: A September 11 Story" by Nora Raleigh Baskin
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
On this occasion he showed the poise and balance of a ballerina, nimbly dancing past three Estonia defenders before unleashing a pile-driver with his right foot.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 9, 2015
A pile-driver ought to have a pretty solid foundation.
From The U-boat hunters by Connolly, James B. (James Brendan)
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.
