Chapter Pigment to Pilgrimage of P by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

2. (Zoöl.) A covering of hair or fur.

Pile
(Pile), n. [L. pilum javelin. See Pile a stake.] The head of an arrow or spear. [Obs.] Chapman.

Pile
(Pile), n. [AS. pil arrow, stake, L. pilum javelin; but cf. also L. pila pillar.]

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, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.

Tubular iron piles are now much used.

2. [Cf. F. pile.] (Her.) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.

Pile bridge, a bridge of which the roadway is supported on piles. — Pile cap, a beam resting upon and connecting the heads of piles. — Pile driver, or Pile engine, an apparatus for driving down piles, consisting usually of a high frame, with suitable appliances for raising to a height (by animal or steam power, the explosion of gunpowder, etc.) a heavy mass of iron, which falls upon the pile. — Pile dwelling. See Lake dwelling, under Lake. — Pile plank (Hydraul. Eng.), a thick plank used as a pile in sheet piling. See Sheet piling, under Piling. — Pneumatic pile. See under Pneumatic. — Screw pile, one with a screw at the lower end, and sunk by rotation aided by pressure.

Pile
(Pile), v. t. To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.

To sheet-pile, to make sheet piling in or around. See Sheet piling, under 2nd Piling.

Pile
(Pile), n. [F. pile, L. pila a pillar, a pier or mole of stone. Cf. Pillar.]

1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap; as, a pile of stones; a pile of wood.

2. A mass formed in layers; as, a pile of shot.

3. A funeral pile; a pyre. Dryden.

4. A large building, or mass of buildings.

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

Dryden.

5. (Iron Manuf.) Same as Fagot, n., 2.

6. (Elec.) A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals, as copper and zinc, laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; — commonly called Volta's pile, voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.

The term is sometimes applied to other forms of apparatus designed to produce a current of electricity, or as synonymous with battery; as, for instance, to an apparatus for generating a current of electricity by the action of heat, usually called a thermopile.

7. [F. pile pile, an engraved die, L. pila a pillar.] The reverse of a coin. See Reverse.

Cross and pile. See under Cross. — Dry pile. See under Dry.

Pile
(Pile), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Piled ; p. pr. & vb. n. Piling.]