In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.
pile, spile, piling, stilt
(noun) a column of wood or steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure
Source: WordNet® 3.1
piling (plural pilings)
A structural support comprising a length of wood, steel, or other construction material.
The act of heaping up.
(ironworking) The process of building up, heating, and working fagots or piles to form bars, etc.
piling
present participle of pile
• Gilpin
Source: Wiktionary
Pil"ing, n. Etym: [See Pile a heap.]
1. The act of heaping up.
2. (Iron Manuf.)
Definition: The process of building up, heating, and working, fagots, or piles, to form bars, etc.
Pil"ing, n. Etym: [See Pile a stake.]
Definition: A series of piles; piles considered collectively; as, the piling of a bridge. Pug piling, sheet piles connected together at the edges by dovetailed tongues and grooves.
– Sheet piling, a series of piles made of planks or half logs driven edge to edge, -- used to form the walls of cofferdams, etc.
Pile, n. Etym: [L. pilus hair. Cf. Peruke.]
1. A hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton, and the like; also, the nap when thick or heavy, as of carpeting and velvet. Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile. Cowper.
2. (Zoöl.)
Definition: A covering of hair or fur.
Pile, n. Etym: [L. pilum javelin. See Pile a stake.]
Definition: The head of an arrow or spear. [Obs.] Chapman.
Pile, n. Etym: [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.
Note: Tubular iron piles are now much used.
2. Etym: [Cf. F. pile.] (Her.)
Definition: 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, v. t.
Definition: 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, n. Etym: [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.)
Definition: Same as Fagot, n., 2.
6. (Elec.)
Definition: 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.
Note: 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. Etym: [F. pile pile, an engraved die, L. pila a pillar.]
Definition: The reverse of a coin. See Reverse. Cross and pile. See under Cross.
– Dry pile. See under Dry.
Pile, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Piled; p. pr. & vb. n. Piling.]
1. To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate; to amass; -- often with up; as, to pile up wood. "Hills piled on hills." Dryden. "Life piled on life." Tennyson. The labor of an age in piled stones. Milton.
2. To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load. To pile arms or muskets (Mil.), to place three guns together so that they may stand upright, supporting each other; to stack arms.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
23 November 2024
(adjective) concerned primarily with theories or hypotheses rather than practical considerations; “theoretical science”
In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.