Category:Pile

Pile, n. Etym: [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. (zoöl.)

Defn: a covering of hair or fur.

Pile Pile, n. Etym: [l. pilum javelin. See pile a stake.]

Defn: the head of an arrow or spear. [obs.] Chapman.

Pile Pile, n. Etym: [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.

Note: tubular iron piles are now much used.

2. Etym: [cf. F. pile.] (her.)

Defn: 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, or 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.

Pile Pile, v. t.

Defn: 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.

Pile Pile, n. Etym: [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.)

Defn: same as fagot, n., 2.

6. (elec.)

Defn: 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.

Note: 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. Etym: [f. pile pile, an engraved die, l. pila a pillar.]

Defn: the reverse of a coin. See reverse. Cross and pile. See under Cross. -- dry pile. See under dry.

Pile 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 or muskets (mil.), to place three guns together So that they may stand upright, supporting each other; to stack arms.