Etymology

Noun

1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap; as, a pile of stones; a pile of wood.
   • 1889, Haggard, Cleopatra:

     I climbed through, and, standing on a pile of stones, lifted and dragged Cleopatra after me. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cleopatra_%28Haggard%29/Book_II/Chapter_XI

2. 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. — William Cowper

3. A covering of hair or fur.
4. A large stake, or piece of timber, steel section pointed and driven into the earth or drilled and cast reinforced concrete, 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.
   • 1719- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe

     All this time I worked very hard...and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour everything was done with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods and driving them into the ground; for I made them much bigger than I needed to have done.

5. The head of an arrow or spear.
6. One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
7. A mass formed in layers; as, a pile of shot.
8. A funeral pile; a pyre.
9. A large building, or mass of buildings.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. The reverse (or tails) of a coin. (Obs)
13. A hemorrhoid (usually it is in plural)

Verb

1. To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
2. 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.
3. To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
4. To add something to a great number.
5. (of vehicles) To create a hold up.
6. A structure supported on piled foundations

Related terms

• funeral pile
• pile bridge
• pile driver
• pile cap
• pile up
• pavilion
• reverse