different between fill vs pile

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: f?l, IPA^(key): /f?l/, [f??]
• Rhymes: -?l
• Homophone: Phil

Etymology 1

From Middle English fillen, fullen, from Old English fyllan (“to fill, fill up, replenish, satisfy; complete, fulfill”), from Proto-Germanic *fullijan? (“to make full, fill”), from *fullaz (“full”), from Proto-Indo-European *pl?h?nós (“full”). Cognate with Scots fill (“to fill”), West Frisian folje (“to fill”), Low German füllen (“to fill”), Dutch vullen (“to fill”), German füllen (“to fill”), Danish fylde (“to fill”), Swedish fylla (“to fill”), Norwegian fylle (“to fill”), Icelandic fylla (“to fill”) and Latin plenus (“full”)

Verb

fill (third-person singular simple present fills, present participle filling, simple past and past participle filled)

1. (transitive) To occupy fully, to take up all of.
   • c. 1761, Tobias Smollett, translator, Don Quixote, part 2, book 5, chapter 4:

     […] the drums began to thunder, the sound of trumpets filled the air, the earth trembled beneath their feet, and the hearts of the gazing multitude throbbed with suspense and expectation […]

   • c. 1860, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, chapter 38:

     And now that I have given the one chapter to the theme that so filled my heart, and so often made it ache and ache again, I pass on, unhindered, to the event that had impended over me longer yet […] .

2. (transitive) To add contents to (a container, cavity, or the like) so that it is full.
   • 1950, Arthur W. Upfield, The Bachelors of Broken Hill, chapter 11:

     She continued to frown as she filled Bony's cup and added brandy to her own.

   • 2005, Wendy Coakley-Thompson, What You Won't Do for Love, 2006 edition, ?ISBN, page 10 [1]:

     She forgave him the pain as he filled the cavity in her back molar. Three weeks later, she let him fill a more intimate cavity.

   • 2006, Gilbert Morris, Sante Fe Woman, B&H, page 95 [2]:

     Grat Herendeen was the first man, a huge man with his bull whip coiled and over his shoulder seeming almost a part of him. He grinned at her as she filled his plate with the eggs and motioned toward the bacon. "Help yourself, Grat."

3. To enter (something), making it full.
   • 1910 May 13, John C. Sherwin, opinion, Delashmutt et al. v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. et al., reprinted in volume 126, North Western Reporter, page 359, at 360:

     In the evening of the 14th of July, there was a rainfall of 3 or 3½ inches in that locality. The water filled the ditch so full that it overflowed the levees on both sides in many places […] .

   • 2004, Peter Westen, The Logic of Consent, Ashgate, ?ISBN, page 322 [3]:

     As the crowd filled the aisles, S repeated loudly what he had announced upon entering the stadium: 'I don't want anyone to touch me, and I will call the police if anyone does.'

4. (intransitive) To become full.

5. (intransitive) To become pervaded with something.

6. (transitive) To satisfy or obey (an order, request, or requirement).

7. (transitive) To install someone, or be installed, in (a position or office), eliminating a vacancy.
   • 1891 January 23, Allen Morse, opinion, Lawrence v. Hanley, reprinted in volume 47, Northwestern Reporter, page 753, at 755:

     The board of supervisors called a specal^[sic] election to fill the office, and at such special election Henry C. Andrews was elected judge of probate to fill out the said term.

8. (transitive) To treat (a tooth) by adding a dental filling to it.
   • a. 1891, "Intimate Diagnosis of Diseased Teeth", in Items of Interest: A Monthly Magazine of Dental Art, Science and Literature, volume 13, number 11, November 1891, page 657 [4]:

     Be that as it may, had the disturbance continued after our having filled the molar, and presuming that nothing had been done to the bicuspid, we might have been still as far as ever from knowing where the trouble lay.

9. (transitive) To fill or supply fully with food; to feed; to satisfy.

   • Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?
10. (transitive, nautical) To trim (a yard) so that the wind blows on the after side of the sails.
11. (transitive, slang, vulgar, of a male) To have sexual intercourse with (a female).

Synonyms

• (occupy fully, take up all of): pervade
• (have sexual intercourse with a female): dick, get up in, knob, swive; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

Antonyms

• (add contents to a container or cavity): empty
• (to become full): empty

Hyponyms

• backfill
• polyfill
• refill

Derived terms

• backfill
• filler
• filling
• forthfill
• fulfill, fulfil
• overfill

Related terms

Related terms

• full

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English fille, vülle, fülle, from Old English fyllu, from Proto-Germanic *full?? (“fullness”). Cognate with German Fülle.

Noun

fill (plural fills)

1. (after a possessive) A sufficient or more than sufficient amount.

   Don't feed him any more: he's had his fill.

   • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night:

     Then they set somewhat of food before me, whereof I ate my fill, and gave me somewhat of clothes wherewith I clad myself anew and covered my nakedness; after which they took me up into the ship, […]

2. An amount that fills a container.

   The mixer returned to the plant for another fill.

3. The filling of a container or area.

   That machine can do 20 fills a minute.

   This paint program supports lines, circles, and textured fills.

4. Inexpensive material used to occupy empty spaces, especially in construction.

   The ruins of earlier buildings were used as fill for more recent construction.

5. (archaeology) Soil and/or human-created debris discovered within a cavity or cut in the layers and exposed by excavation; fill soil.
6. An embankment, as in railroad construction, to fill a hollow or ravine; also, the place which is to be filled.
7. (music) A short passage, riff, or rhythmic sound that helps to keep the listener's attention during a break between the phrases of a melody.

   bass fill

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

• fill soil
• fill up

Translations

Etymology 3

See thill.

Noun

fill (plural fills)

1. One of the thills or shafts of a carriage.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Mortimer to this entry?)

   • 2008, Martha E. Green, Pioneers in Pith Helmets

     It was a challenge to learn to harness him, guide him slowly back between the fills of the carriage, then to fasten the right buckles and snaps, making the harness and buggy all ready for travel to church or to town.

Albanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi??/

Etymology 1

Borrowed through Vulgar Latin from Latin filum.

Noun

fill m (plural fije)

1. thread, yarn

Etymology 2

Unclear. Probably from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place, stell; fixed, motionless, still, stiff”)

Adverb

fill

1. at once, immediately, alone
2. instant

Derived terms

• filloj
• zanafillë

Catalan

Etymology

From Old Occitan filh, from Latin f?lius, from Latin f?lios (“son”), from Proto-Indo-European *d?eh?y-li-os (“sucker”), a derivation from the verbal root *d?eh?(y)- (“to suck”). Cognate to Occitan filh, French fils.

Pronunciation

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /?fi?/
• Rhymes: -i?

Noun

fill m (plural fills)

1. son

Derived terms

• fill de puta

Related terms

• afillar
• filial
• filla

Further reading

• “fill” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

Irish

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /f?i?l?/
• (Galway) IPA^(key): /f?i?l??/
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /f??l??/

Etymology 1

From Old Irish fillid (“turns back”), from Proto-Celtic *wel-n-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“turn”); compare German walzen (“roll”), Latin volv? (“turn”)

Verb

fill (present analytic filleann, future analytic fillfidh, verbal noun filleadh, past participle fillte)

1. turn back
2. return
3. fold
4. (biology, geology, medicine) plicate
5. (medicine, of symptoms) recur

Conjugation

Derived terms

• athfhill (“recur; (of decimals) circulate; refold; reflect”)

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Noun

fill

1. genitive singular of feall

Mutation

References

• "fill" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “fillid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Scottish Gaelic

Etymology

From Old Irish fillid (“turns back”), from Proto-Celtic *wel-n-, from Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“turn”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi??/

Verb

fill (past dh'fhill, future fillidh, verbal noun filleadh, past participle fillte)

1. fold; plait; twill
2. imply
3. contain, include

Derived terms

• eadar-fhill (“intervolve”)

Mutation

References

• “fill” in Edward Dwelly, Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic–English Dictionary, 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, 1911, ?ISBN.
• Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors (2019) , “fillid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pa?l/
• Rhymes: -a?l

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French pile, pille, from Latin p?la (“pillar, pier”).

Noun

pile (plural piles)

1. A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
2. (figuratively, informal) A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.

3. A mass formed in layers.

4. A funeral pile; a pyre.
5. (slang) A large amount of money.

   Synonyms: bundle, (both informal) mint, (colloquial) small fortune

6. A large building, or mass of buildings.
   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, II.2:

     The pile is of a gloomy and massive, rather than of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture […]

   • 1697, John Dryden, The Aeneid

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

   • 1892, Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved

     It was dark when the four-wheeled cab wherein he had brought Avice from the station stood at the entrance to the pile of flats of which Pierston occupied one floor […]

7. A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a fagot.
8. A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals (especially copper and zinc), laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; a voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
9. (architecture, civil engineering) A beam, pole, or pillar, driven completely into the ground.

   Hyponyms: friction pile, bearing pile, end bearing pile

   Coordinate terms: pile driver, pile foundation

10. An atomic pile; an early form of nuclear reactor.
11. (obsolete) The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
12. (figuratively) A list or league

    • Watch Harlequins train and you get some idea of why they are back on top of the pile going into Saturday's rerun of last season's grand final against Leicester.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:lot

Translations

Verb

pile (third-person singular simple present piles, present participle piling, simple past and past participle piled)

1. (transitive, often used with the preposition "up") To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate

2. (transitive) To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.

3. (transitive) To add something to a great number.
4. (transitive) (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
5. (transitive, military) To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.

Synonyms

• (lay or throw into a pile): heap, pile up; see also Thesaurus:pile up

Translations

Related terms

Etymology 2

From Old English p?l, from Latin p?lum (“heavy javelin”). Cognate with Dutch pijl, German Pfeil. Doublet of pilum.

Noun

pile (plural piles)

1. (obsolete) A dart; an arrow.
2. The head of an arrow or spear.
3. A large stake, or piece of pointed timber, steel etc., driven into the earth or sea-bed for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
4. (heraldry) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

pile (third-person singular simple present piles, present participle piling, simple past and past participle piled)

1. (transitive) To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.

Translations

Etymology 3

Apparently from Late Latin pilus.

Noun

pile (plural piles)

1. (usually in the plural) A hemorrhoid.

Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English pile, partly from Anglo-Norman pil (a variant of peil, poil (“hair”)) and partly from its source, Latin pilus (“hair”). Doublet of pilus.

Noun

pile (countable and uncountable, plural piles)

1. Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
2. The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
   • 1785, William Cowper, The Task

     Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile.

Translations

Verb

pile (third-person singular simple present piles, present participle piling, simple past and past participle piled)

1. (transitive) To give a pile to; to make shaggy.

Anagrams

• Lipe, Peil, Piel, plie, plié

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pi?l?/, [?p?i?l?]

Noun

pile c

1. indefinite plural of pil

French

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin p?la (through Italian pila for the “battery” sense). The “tail of a coin” sense is probably derived from previous senses, but it's not known for sure.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pil/

Noun

pile f (plural piles)

1. heap, stack

2. pillar
3. battery

4. tails

5. (heraldry) pile

Derived terms

• pile ou face

Descendants

• ? Haitian Creole: anpil
• ? Khmer: ??? (p?l)
• ? Malagasy: pila
• ? Rade: pil
• ? Turkish: pil
• ? Vietnamese: pin

Adverb

pile

1. (colloquial) just, exactly
2. (colloquial) dead (of stopping etc.); on the dot, sharp (of time), smack

Derived terms

• pile-poil

Further reading

• “pile” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• plie, plié

Friulian

Etymology 1

From Latin p?la (“mortar”).

Noun

pile f (plural pilis)

1. basin
2. mortar (vessel used to grind things)

Synonyms

• (basin): vâs
• (mortar): mortâr

Etymology 2

From Latin p?la (“pillar”).

Noun

pile f (plural pilis)

1. pile (architecture)

Italian

Noun

pile m (invariable)

1. fleece (all senses)

Noun

pile f

1. plural of pila

Anagrams

• peli

Latin

Noun

pile

1. vocative singular of pilus

Latvian

Noun

pile f (5th declension)

1. drip

2. dribble (a small amount of a liquid)
3. drop

Declension

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?il?/, [?p?il?]

Noun

pile

1. inflection of pi?a:
   1. dative/locative singular
   2. nominative/accusative dual

Middle English

Noun

pile

1. Alternative form of pilwe

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?i.l?/

Noun

pile f

1. dative/locative singular of pi?a

Portuguese

Verb

pile

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of pilar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of pilar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of pilar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of pilar

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *pil? (“chick”); but also a *piskl? is reconstructed related to *piskati (“to utter shrilly”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pîle/
• Hyphenation: pi?le

Noun

p?le n (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. chick

Declension

See also

• kokoš
• pijevac / pevac
• pile?i gulaš

Verb

pile (Cyrillic spelling ????)

1. third-person plural present of piliti

Spanish

Verb

pile

1. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of pilar.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of pilar.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of pilar.