pile

1 of 6

noun (1)

plural piles
1
: a long slender column usually of timber, steel, or reinforced concrete driven into the ground to carry a vertical load
… thus Ellet reported that the riverbed was … firm enough to drive piles into for the foundations of piers.Henry Petroski
2
: a wedge-shaped heraldic charge usually placed vertically with the broad end up
3
a
: a target-shooting arrowhead without cutting edges
b
[Latin pilum] : an ancient Roman foot soldier's heavy javelin

pile

2 of 6

verb (1)

piled; piling

transitive verb

: to drive piles into

pile

3 of 6

verb (2)

piled; piling

transitive verb

1
: to lay or place in a pile : stack
2
a
: to heap in abundance : load
piled potatoes on his plate
b
: to collect little by little into a mass
usually used with up

intransitive verb

1
: to form a pile or accumulation
usually used with up
2
: to move or press forward in or as if in a mass : crowd
piled into a car

pile

4 of 6

noun (2)

plural piles
1
a(1)
: a quantity of things or people heaped together
a pile of leaves
… TV cameras captured him in a pile of his celebrating teammates.Benjamin Hoffman
(2)
: a heap of wood for burning a corpse or a sacrifice
b
: any great number or quantity : lot
made a pile of money
2
: a large building or group of buildings
3
: a great amount of money : fortune
She made a pile in the stock market.
4

pile

5 of 6

noun (3)

1
: a coat or surface of usually short close fine furry hairs
2
: a velvety surface produced by an extra set of filling yarns that form raised loops which are cut and sheared
pileless adjective

pile

6 of 6

noun (4)

1
: a single hemorrhoid
2
piles plural : hemorrhoids

Examples of pile in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
As the streams and accolades pile up, so do the people coming to see Summit in increasingly bigger venues. Waiss Aramesh, Rolling Stone, 21 Mar. 2024 Others are piling into stocks, fueling a market boom that is second only to Japan’s this year. Scott McLean, CNN, 20 Mar. 2024 Seals, sea lions and walruses of every era still piled onto beaches to rest, reproduce and escape predators—from carnivorous walrus relatives of ages past to the elephant seals that shore up along the California coast each winter. Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Mar. 2024 Lacrosse Riley Padian of Palos Verdes continues to pile up achievements. Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar. 2024 Bread Basket's famed sandwiches are piled high with Sy Ginsberg corned beef sandwiches. Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press, 15 Mar. 2024 Mayhem ensues for the rest of the evening as the bodies pile up. Jim Higgins, Journal Sentinel, 13 Mar. 2024 Nina Luxenberg, a Tucson doctor, said digging massive pits and piling tailings in the mountains will ruin their appeal to both tourists and residents who seek the area out for recreation and birdwatching. Brandon Loomis, The Arizona Republic, 7 Mar. 2024 Many of those brick-and-mortar shops have been on a steady decline for years and are often associated with dark, dusty backrooms piled high with smelly canvas and imitation gear. Charles W. McFarlane, New York Times, 6 Mar. 2024
Noun
As recently as Friday afternoon, in upper Montgomery County near Mount Ephraim Road, authorities reported a large brush fire, in which both brush and piles of agricultural debris may have been involved. Martin Weil, Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2024 Trump’s pending return to Wall Street comes down to a vote scheduled for Friday by shareholders of a company named Digital World Acquisition Corp., which at the moment is essentially just a pile of cash. Stan Choe, Fortune, 21 Mar. 2024 Ancient excrement found in waste piles below where the houses would have stood showed that the community kept dogs that fed on scraps from their owners’ meals. Katie Hunt, CNN, 20 Mar. 2024 Two burned out trailers and a pile of junk extend around the perimeter, with what looks like a bunker of trash lying a few paces beyond. Jonah Gercke, SPIN, 15 Mar. 2024 Additionally, there’s a mounting pile of evidence that heavier vehicles can pollute the Earth in other ways by kicking up brake dust and rubber from tires that wear away on the road. Owen Bellwood / Jalopnik, Quartz, 13 Mar. 2024 But experts fear that stocks will soon begin to dwindle as more and more goods pile up on the docks, because transportation by road is too dangerous and gangs have seized ports. Andre Paultre, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2024 Hundreds of the columns, called soldier piles, have been installed already. Phil Diehl, San Diego Union-Tribune, 6 Mar. 2024 The latter two were for making a backyard compost pile. Shira Ovide, Washington Post, 5 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pile.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English, dart, quill, pole driven into the ground, from Old English pīl, from Latin pilum javelin

Verb (2)

Middle English, from pile entry 4

Noun (2)

Middle English pier of a bridge, stack, heap, from Middle French pille pier of a bridge, from Latin pila pillar

Noun (3)

Middle English, in plural piles "hair, plumage," borrowed from Anglo-French peil, pil "hair, coat of animal hair, cloth with thick nap" (continental Old French peil, poil "hair"), going back to Latin pilus "hair," of obscure origin

Note: Anglo-French pil for peil, apparently yielding long i in Middle English, is exceptional. The Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, proposes that the word is "partly" borrowed directly from Latin. Middle English Dictionary suggests borrowing from Middle Dutch pijl.

Noun (4)

Middle English pilez, plural, from Medieval Latin pili, perhaps from Latin pila ball

First Known Use

Noun (1)

12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Verb (1)

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Verb (2)

14th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Noun (2)

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a(1)

Noun (3)

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun (4)

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of pile was in the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near pile

Cite this Entry

“Pile.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pile. Accessed 28 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

pile

1 of 6 noun
: a long slender post usually of timber, steel, or concrete driven into the ground to support a load

pile

2 of 6 verb
piled; piling
: to drive piles into

pile

3 of 6 noun
1
a
: a quantity of things heaped together
b
: a heap of wood for burning a corpse or a sacrifice
2
: a great amount
3

pile

4 of 6 verb
piled; piling
1
: to lay or place something in a pile : stack
2
: to heap in abundance : load
3
: to move or push forward hastily or in a disorganized way : crowd
piled into the car

pile

5 of 6 noun
1
: a coat or surface of usually short close fine furry hairs
2
: raised loops on the surface of a fabric which may be cut or uncut and which produce a velvety or fuzzy texture
piled adjective

pile

6 of 6 noun
Etymology

Noun

Old English pīl "dart, stake," from Latin pilum "spear, javelin"

Noun

Middle English pile "pier of a bridge, heap, stack," from early French pille "pier of a bridge," from Latin pila "pillar"

Noun

Middle English pile "furry surface," from early French peil, pil "hair, coat with thick nap," from Latin pilus "hair" — related to caterpillar see Word History at caterpillar

Noun

Middle English pile "hemorrhoid," perhaps derived from Latin pila "ball"

Medical Definition

pile

noun
1
: a single hemorrhoid
2
piles plural : hemorrhoids
also : the condition of one affected with hemorrhoids

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