Link Centre Dictionary

file

UK/faɪl/ US/faɪ̯(ə)ɫ/ common slang us
verb (5) noun (4)

verb

1.

record in a public office or in a court of law

  • “file for divorce”
  • “file a complaint”
Synonyms
2.

smooth with a file

  • “file one”
3.

proceed in line

  • “The students filed into the classroom”
4.

file a formal charge against

  • “The suspect was charged with murdering his wife”
Synonyms
5.

place in a container for keeping records

  • “File these bills, please”
Synonyms

noun

1.
2.

a line of persons or things ranged one behind the other

Synonyms
3.
4.

a steel hand tool with small sharp teeth on some or all of its surfaces; used for smoothing wood or metal

Origin

From Middle English file, fyle, from Old English fēl, fēol (“file”), from earlier fīil, from Proto-Germanic *finhlō, *finhilō (“file, rasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“to adorn, form”). Cognate with West Frisian file (“file”), Dutch vijl (“file”), German Feile (“file”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish fil (“file”), Icelandic þjöl (“rasp, file”).

Phrases

  • closed file
  • double file
  • file away
  • file closer
  • filing clerk
  • filing fee
  • half-open file
  • Indian file
  • open file
  • ranger file
  • rank and file

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Part of

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.