pile

Meaning

Noun

1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
2. (informal) A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
3. A mass formed in layers.
4. A funeral pile; a pyre.
5. (slang) A large amount of money.
6. A large building, or mass of buildings.
7. A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a fagot.
8. A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals (especially copper and zinc), laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; a voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
9. A beam, pole, or pillar, driven completely into the ground, usually as one of a group that constitutes a foundation.
10. An atomic pile; an early form of nuclear reactor.
11. (obsolete) The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
12. A list or league

Verb

1. To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate
2. To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
3. To add something to a great number.
4. (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
5. To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.
6. To form a pile or heap.

Verb

To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.

Verb

To give a pile to; to make shaggy.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/paɪl/

Etymology

From Middle English pyle, from Old French pile, from Latin pīla (“pillar, pier”).