Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of driving piles.
  • noun Piles considered as a group.
  • noun A structure composed of piles.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Logs ready to be made into piles, or from which piles are made.
  • noun See pile, verb
  • noun In leather manufacturing, a slow inward sweating of the leather.
  • noun In engineering, the operation of placing and driving piles in position.
  • noun Piles collectively; pilework.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of heaping up.
  • noun (Iron Manuf.) The process of building up, heating, and working, fagots, or piles, to form bars, etc.
  • noun A series of piles; piles considered collectively.
  • noun sheet piles connected together at the edges by dovetailed tongues and grooves.
  • noun a series of piles made of planks or half logs driven edge to edge, -- used to form the walls of cofferdams, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A structural support comprised of a length of wood, steel, or other construction material.
  • verb Present participle of pile.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

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

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Is that what you call piling a MASSIVE deficit onto future generations, children (little people).

    unknown title 2009

  • I jumped out of my sleeping bag and begin piling more wood and pine bows on the fire.

    A Tale of Survival 2009

  • Greece led the peripheral countries in piling up debts that it had little hope of ever repaying.

    Borrowers of Euroland are Proving Einstein's Theory of Insanity Right Irwin Stelzer 2010

  • In Evidence that we should freak out, episode I, RC3 points me to Grain piling up in Canadian ports | FP Passport:

    Discourse.net: OK, This I Don't Like 2008

  • If it does, grain piling up will be the least of your worries.

    Discourse.net: OK, This I Don't Like 2008

  • Only the person writing it today knows, and they know it because of the true ring of the words in their ears, not the sound of the coins piling up in their future.

    Do you write for love or money? Lauri 2009

  • However, in piling on Mr. Doyle, I fear that Morrissey has put aside his political and/or philosophical beliefs in favor of giving his enemy another good bludgeon.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Defending Your Enemy When They Are Right 2005

  • Many will say, "Oh, let him bide,, because after all he is only a poor mad crazy fellow who spends his time in piling up apples in an apple cart and balancing them dexterously on the top of his nose."

    The Apple Cart and the British Empire 1931

  • Both these men had publicly thanked the Suffragettes for their notable share in piling up those triumphant and highly significant majorities.

    The Convert 1907

  • I found Moodie and Monaghan employed in piling up heaps of bush near the house, which they intended to burn off by hand previous to firing the rest of the fallow, to prevent any risk to the building from fire.

    Roughing It in the Bush 1852

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