pile

plural piles

1. collectiveA mass of things heaped together; a heap.

   I climbed through, and, standing on a pile of stones, lifted and dragged Cleopatra after me.

   1889, H. Rider Haggard, Cleopatra^(http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(Haggard)/Book_II/Chapter_XI), Book II: The Fall of Harmachis, →ISBN, Chapter XI

   1 more example

   Containerization is a long overdue step in bringing our city’s trash collection into the modern era, putting an end to the piles of garbage that have become far too common across our city.

   2026 April 17, Julia Kerson, quotee, “Mayor Mamdani Takes Major Step Toward Citywide Trash Containerization, Announces Six New Districts”, in NYC.gov, archived from the original on 03 Jul 2026

2. informalA group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.

   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.

3. A mass formed in layers.

   a pile of shot

4. A funeral pile; a pyre.

   Jove with a Nod, comply'd with her Deſire; / Around the Body flam'd the Funeral Fire; / The Pile decreas'd that lately ſeem'd ſo high, / And Sheets of Smoak roll'd upward to the Sky: [...]

   1717, Samuel Croxall, “Book XIII. [The Funeral of Memnon.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 463

5. slangA large amount of money.

   He made a pile from that invention of his.

   1 more example

   When they are at work they live most frugally, denying themselves every comfort and luxury till they have made a "pile."

   1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 192

   Synonyms: bundle, mint, small fortune

6. A large building, or mass of buildings.

   The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight.

   1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

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   The pile is of a gloomy and massive, rather than of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture; […]

   1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter VI, in Rob Roy. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 124

   It was dark when the four-wheeled cab wherein he had brought Avice from the station stood at the entrance to the pile of flats of which Pierston occupied one floor[…]

   1892, Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved

   He [Winston Churchill] was born at Blenheim Palace, that Oxfordshire pile built for his ancestor John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, who also knew a thing or two about warfare.

   2021 September 22, Stephen Roberts, “The writings on the wall...”, in RAIL, number 940, page 75

7. 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.
8. 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.

   The word "pile" is used specifically to mean the column of superposed electrodes, such as that of Volta or Zamboni.

   1893, Benjamin Park, The Voltaic Cell: Its Construction and Its Capacity, page 14

9. architectureA beam, pole, or pillar, driven completely into the ground, usually as one of a group that constitutes a foundation.
10. An atomic pile; an early form of nuclear reactor.
11. obsoleteThe reverse (or tails) of a coin.
12. A list or league

    And the moment it thumped into the net, Celtic’s march back to the top of the SPL pile also seemed unstoppable.

    2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record

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    Watch Harlequins train and you get some idea of why they are back on top of the pile going into Saturday's rerun of last season's grand final against Leicester.

    2012 September 20, Shaun Edwards, “Bent double and lungs burning – how Harlequins train for trophies”, in The Guardian (online)

present singular third person piles · participle present piling · participle past piled · past piled

1. oftentransitiveTo lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate

   They were piling up wood on the wheelbarrow.

   Synonyms: heap

2. transitiveTo cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.

   We piled the camel with our loads.

   1 more example

   Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.

   2013 June 22, “Engineers of a different kind”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 70

3. transitiveTo add something to a great number.

   But as the second half wore on, Sunderland piled forward at every opportunity and their relentless pressure looked certain to be rewarded in the closing stages.

   2010 December 28, Owen Phillips, “Sunderland 0-2 Blackpool”, in BBC

4. transitive(of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
5. transitivegovernmentTo place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.
6. intransitiveTo form a pile or heap.

   Junk piled on the floor as we searched the attic for the old photograph albums.

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   I darted from room to room as the see-through bagless dustbin piled high with shocking amounts of icky-poo.

   2007 October 7, S.S. Fair, “Vacuum Packed”, in New York Times

   Synonyms: accumulate, pile up

plural piles

1. obsoleteA dart; an arrow.
2. The head of an arrow or spear.
3. 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.

   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.

   1719, Daniel Defoe, The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 10th edition, published 1864, Chapter VI, page 68

4. governmentOne of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.

present singular third person piles · participle present piling · participle past piled · past piled

1. transitiveTo drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.

plural piles

1. plural normallyA hemorrhoid.

plural piles

1. countableuncountableHair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
2. countableuncountableThe raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.

   Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile.

   1785, William Cowper, The Task

present singular third person piles · participle present piling · participle past piled · past piled

1. transitiveTo give a pile to; to make shaggy.

plural piles

1. historicalchemistryA battery (simple device for converting chemical potential energy into usable electricity).
   1. historicalchemistryA battery consisting of repeated units of alternating types of metal; voltaic pile.

plural Piles

1. A surname.