Pile (?), n. [L. pilus hair. Cf. Peruke.]
1.
A hair; hence, the fiber 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. Zool.
A covering of hair or fur.
© Webster 1913.
Pile, n. [L. pilum javelin. See Pile a stake.]
The head of an arrow or spear.
[Obs.]
Chapman.
© Webster 1913.
Pile, n. [AS. pil arrow, stake, L. pilum javelin; but cf. also L. pila pillar.]
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.] Her.
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, ∨ 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. -- Pile plank Hydraul. Eng., a thick plank used as a pile in sheet piling. See Sheet piling, under Piling. -- Pneumatic pile. See under Pneumatic. -- Screw pile, one with a screw at the lower end, and sunk by rotation aided by pressure.
© Webster 1913.
Pile, v. t.
To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
To sheet-pile, to make sheet piling in or around. See Sheet piling, under 2nd Piling.
© Webster 1913.
Pile, n. [F. pile, L. pila a pillar, a pier or mole of stone. Cf. 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.
Dryden.
4.
A large building, or mass of buildings.
The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight.
Dryden.
5. Iron Manuf.
Same as Fagot, n., 2.
6. Elec.
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 under Cross. -- Dry pile. See under Dry.
© Webster 1913.
Pile, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Piled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Piling.]
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."
Dryden. "Life
piled on life."
Tennyson.
The labor 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 ∨ muskets Mil., to place three guns together so that they may stand upright, supporting each other; to stack arms.
© Webster 1913.