pile

Plural: piles

Noun

• a collection of objects laid on top of each other
• (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
• a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit)
• fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)
• battery consisting of voltaic cells arranged in series; the earliest electric battery devised by Volta
• a column of wood or steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure
• the yarn (as in a rug or velvet or corduroy) that stands up from the weave
  • "for uniform color and texture tailors cut velvet with the pile running the same direction"
• a nuclear reactor that uses controlled nuclear fission to generate energy
• A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
• A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
• A mass formed in layers.
• A funeral pile; a pyre.
• A large amount of money.
• A large building, or mass of buildings.
• 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.
• 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.
• A beam, pole, or pillar, driven completely into the ground, usually as one of a group that constitutes a foundation.
• An atomic pile; an early form of nuclear reactor.
• The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
• A list or league
• A dart; an arrow.
• The head of an arrow or spear.
• A large stake, or piece of pointed timber, steel etc., driven into the earth or sea-bed for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
• One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
• A hemorrhoid.
• Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
• The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
• A battery (simple device for converting chemical potential energy into usable electricity).
• A battery (simple device for converting chemical potential energy into usable electricity).
• A battery consisting of repeated units of alternating types of metal; voltaic pile.

Verb

Verb Forms: piled, piling, piles

• To place things one on top of another in a heap.
• arrange in stacks
• press tightly together or cram
• place or lay as if in a pile
  • "The teacher piled work on the students until the parents protested"
• To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate
• To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
• To add something to a great number.
• (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
• To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.
• To form a pile or heap.
• To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
• To give a pile to; to make shaggy.

Examples

• a pile of shot
• He made a pile from that invention of his.
• I watched him pile up his tiles, hoping for a bonus play, only to form a short word.
• Junk piled on the floor as we searched the attic for the old photograph albums.
• They were piling up wood on the wheelbarrow.
• We piled the camel with our loads.
• When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile, and the annoying guy on the "no" pile

Synonyms

agglomerate, atomic pile, atomic reactor, batch, big bucks, big money, bundle, chain reactor, cumulation, cumulus, deal, down, flock, galvanic pile, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, jam, lot, mass, megabucks, mess, mickle, mint, mob, mound, mountain, muckle, nap, pack, passel, peck, piling, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, spile, stack, stilt, throng, tidy sum, voltaic pile, wad, accumulate, pile up, small fortune

Anagrams of pile