PILE, n. [L. pila.] 1. A heap; a mass or collection of things in a roundish or elevated form; as a pile of stones; a pile of bricks; a pile of wood or timber; a pile of ruins.2. A collection of combustibles for burning a dead body; as a funeral pile.3. A large building or mass of buildings; an edifice. The pile o'erlook'd the town and drew the sight.4. A heap of balls or shot laid in horizontal courses, rising into a pyramidical form.PILE, n. [L. palus.] 1. A large stake or piece of timber, pointed and driven into the earth, as at the bottom of a river, or in a harbor where the ground is soft, for the support of a building or other superstructure. The stadthouse in Amsterdam is supported by piles.2. One side of a coin; originally, a punch or puncheon used in stamping figures on coins, and containing the figures to be impressed. Hence the arms-side of a coin is called the pile, and the head the cross, which was formerly in the place of the head. Hence cross and pile.3. In heraldry, an ordinary in form of a point inverted or a stake sharpened.PILE, n. [L. pilum.] The head of an arrow. PILE, n. [L. pilus.] Properly, a hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton and the like; hence, the nap, the fine hairy substance of the surface of cloth. PILE, v.t. To lay or throw into a heap; to collect many things into a mass; as, to pile wood or stones. 1. To bring into an aggregate; to accumulate; as, to pile quotations or comments.2. To fill with something heaped.3. To fill above the brim or top.4. To break off the awns of threshed barley. [Local.]
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