Link Centre Dictionary

pile

UK/paɪl/ US/ˈpaɪl/ common informal slang

noun

1.

a collection of objects laid on top of each other

2.

(often followed by `of'') a large number or amount or extent

  • “a batch of letters”
  • “a deal of trouble”
  • “a lot of money”
  • “he made a mint on the stock market”
  • “it must have cost plenty”
3.

a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit)

  • “she made a bundle selling real estate”
  • “they sank megabucks into their new house”
4.

fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)

Synonyms
5.

battery consisting of voltaic cells arranged in series; the earliest electric battery devised by Volta

6.

a column of wood or steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure

7.

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”
Synonyms

verb

1.

arrange in stacks

  • “heap firewood around the fireplace”
  • “stack your books up on the shelves”
Synonyms
2.

press tightly together or cram

  • “The crowd packed the auditorium”
3.

place or lay as if in a pile

  • “The teacher piled work on the students until the parents protested”

Origin

From French pile (“battery”), with the pronunciation adapted to the existing English word pile. Doublet of Etymology 1, which may have influenced the sense development by emphasizing the stack (“pile”) out of which early batteries were made.

Phrases

  • at the bottom of the pile
  • at the top of the pile
  • atomic pile
  • book piles
  • Bunsen pile
  • cross and pile
  • death pile
  • deep pile carpet
  • funeral pile
  • knotted pile
  • pile bridge
  • pile cap

Related words

See also

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.