Pile, n.
 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.  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, 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.


 Pil·ing, n.  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.

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 Sheet n.  In general, a large, broad piece of anything thin, as paper, cloth, etc.; a broad, thin portion of any substance; an expanded superficies. Specifically: (a) A broad piece of cloth, usually linen or cotton, used for wrapping the body or for a covering; especially, one used as an article of bedding next to the body.
    He fell into a trance, and saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners.   --Acts x. 10, 11.
 If I do die before thee, prithee, shroud me
 In one of those same sheets.   --Shak.
 (b) A broad piece of paper, whether folded or unfolded, whether blank or written or printed upon; hence, a letter; a newspaper, etc. (c) A single signature of a book or a pamphlet; in pl., the book itself.
    To this the following sheets are intended for a full and distinct answer.   --Waterland.
 (d) A broad, thinly expanded portion of metal or other substance; as, a sheet of copper, of glass, or the like; a plate; a leaf. (e) A broad expanse of water, or the like. “The two beautiful sheets of water.” --Macaulay. (f) A sail. --Dryden. (g) Geol. An extensive bed of an eruptive rock intruded between, or overlying, other strata.
 2.  Naut. (a) A rope or chain which regulates the angle of adjustment of a sail in relation in relation to the wind; -- usually attached to the lower corner of a sail, or to a yard or a boom. (b) pl. The space in the forward or the after part of a boat where there are no rowers; as, fore sheets; stern sheets.
 Note: ☞ Sheet is often used adjectively, or in combination, to denote that the substance to the name of which it is prefixed is in the form of sheets, or thin plates or leaves; as, sheet brass, or sheet-brass; sheet glass, or sheet-glass; sheet gold, or sheet-gold; sheet iron, or sheet-iron, etc.
 A sheet in the wind, half drunk. [Sailors' Slang]
 Both sheets in the wind, very drunk. [Sailors' Slang]
 In sheets, lying flat or expanded; not folded, or folded but not bound; -- said especially of printed sheets.
 Sheet bend Naut., a bend or hitch used for temporarily fastening a rope to the bight of another rope or to an eye.
 Sheet lightning, Sheet piling, etc. See under Lightning, Piling, etc.


 sheet piling
      n : a pile in a row of piles driven side by side to retain earth
          or prevent seepage [syn: sheet pile, sheath pile]