transcription, транскрипция: [ paɪl ]
( piles, piling, piled)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
A pile of things is a mass of them that is high in the middle and has sloping sides.
...a pile of sand...
The leaves had been swept into huge piles.
= heap, mound
N-COUNT : usu N of n
2.
A pile of things is a quantity of things that have been put neatly somewhere so that each thing is on top of the one below.
...a pile of boxes...
The clothes were folded in a neat pile.
N-COUNT : usu N of n
3.
If you pile things somewhere, you put them there so that they form a pile.
He was piling clothes into the suitcase...
A few newspapers and magazines were piled on a table.
VERB : V n adv / prep , V n adv / prep
4.
If something is piled with things, it is covered or filled with piles of things.
Tables were piled high with local produce.
VERB : usu passive , be V-ed with n
5.
If you talk about a pile of something or piles of something, you mean a large amount of it. ( INFORMAL )
...a whole pile of disasters.
QUANT : QUANT of pl-n / n-uncount
6.
If a group of people pile into or out of a vehicle, they all get into it or out of it in a disorganized way.
They all piled into Jerrold’s car...
A fleet of police cars suddenly arrived. Dozens of officers piled out.
VERB : V into/out of n , V in/out
7.
You can refer to a large impressive building as a pile , especially when it is the home of a rich important person.
...some stately pile in the country.
N-COUNT
8.
Piles are wooden, concrete, or metal posts which are pushed into the ground and on which buildings or bridges are built. Piles are often used in very wet areas so that the buildings do not flood.
...settlements of wooden houses, set on piles along the shore.
N-COUNT : usu pl
9.
Piles are painful swellings that can appear in the veins inside a person’s anus.
N-PLURAL
10.
The pile of a carpet or of a fabric such as velvet is its soft surface. It consists of a lot of little threads standing on end.
...the carpet’s thick pile.
N-SING
11.
Someone who is at the bottom of the pile is low down in society or low down in an organization. Someone who is at the top of the pile is high up in society or high up in an organization. ( INFORMAL )
PHRASE : oft v-link PHR