Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PILCH'ER, n.

Any thing lined with fur, as a gown.

PILE, n.¹ [Sp. and It. pila; Port. pilha; Fr. pile; from L. pila; Gr. λιθος. The bolei mentioned by Pausanias, were heaps of stones.]

1. A heap; a mass or collection of things in a roundish or elevated form; as, a pile of stones; a pile of bricks; a pile of wood or timber; a pile of ruins.
2. A collection of combustibles for burning a dead body; as, a funeral pile.
3. A large building or mass of buildings; an edifice. The pile o'erlook'd the town and drew the sight. – Dryden.
4. A heap of balls or shot laid in horizontal courses, rising into a pyramidical form.

PILE, n.² [D. paal; G. pfahl; Sw. and Dan. pol, a pole; L. palus; D. pyl, an arrow or dart; Sw. and Dan. pil, id.; W. pill, a stem. These have the same elements and the like radical meaning, that of a shoot or extended thing.]

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 or other superstructure. The stadthouse Amsterdam is supported by piles.
2. One side of a coin; originally, a punch or puncheon used in stamping figures on coins, and containing the figures to be impressed. Hence the arms-side of a coin is called the pile, and the head the cross, which was formerly in the place of the head. Hence cross and pile. – Encyc.
3. In heraldry, [one of the lesser ordinaries, resembling a pile used in laying the foundations of buildings in watery places, whence it has its name. – E. H. B.]

PILE, n.³ [D. pyl; Dan. and Sw. pil; L. pilum.]

The head of an arrow.

PILE, n.⁴ [L. pilus; G. boll; Hindoo, bal; Gipsey, ballow.]

Properly, a hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton and the like; hence, the nap, the fine hairy substance of the surface of cloth.

PILE, v.t.

1. To lay or throw into a heap; to collect many things into a mass, as, to pile wood or stones.
2. To bring into an aggregate; to accumulate; as, to pile quotations or comments. – Atterbury. Felton.
3. To fill with something heaped. – Abbot.
4. To fill above the brim or top.
5. To break off the awns of threshed barley. [Local.]
6. To drive piles. Sheet pile, to drive a piling of planks edge to edge. Whence the noun sheet-piling.

PIL'E-ATE, or PIL'E-A-TED, a. [L. pileus, a cap.]

Having the form of a cap or cover for the head. – Woodward.

PIL-ED, pp.

Heaped.

PILE-MENT, n.

An accumulation. [Not used.] – Hall.

PIL-ER, n. [from pile, a heap.]

One who piles or forms a heap.

PILES, n. [plur.]

The hemorrhoids, a disease.

PILE-WORM, n.

A worm found in piles in Holland.

PILE-WORT, n.

A plant of the genus Ranunculus.

PIL'FER, v.i. [W. yspeiliata, to pilfer; yspeiliaw, to spoil, to ravage; Sp. pellizcar, to pinch, to pilfer, to take little food. It seems to be allied to peel, pillage.]

To steal in small quantities; to practice petty theft; as, a boy accustomed to pilfer. A pilfering hand. – Dryden.

PIL'FER, v.t.

To steal or gain by petty theft; to filch. He would not pilfer the victory, and the defeat was easy. – Bacon.

PIL'FER-ED, pp.

Stolen in small parcels.

PIL'FER-ER, n.

One that pilfers or practices petty thefts. – Young.

PIL'FER-ING, n.

Petty theft. Pilfering was so universal in all the South Sea islands, that it was hardly recognized in the moral code of the natives as an offense, much less a crime. – J. Sparks.

PIL'FER-ING, ppr.

Stealing; practicing petty thefts.

PIL'FER-ING-LY, adv.

With petty theft; filchingly.

PIL-GAR-LICK, or PILL'ED-GAR-LICK, n. [pilled, peeled, and garlick.]

One who has lost his hair by disease; a poor forsaken wretch. – Stevens.

PIL'GRIM, n. [G. pilger; Fr. pelerin; It. pellegrino; Sp. and Port. peregrino; It. peregrinus. Qu. L. peragro, to wander. In W. pererin is a pilgrim, and pellynig is wandering, far-roaming, from pellau, to remove far, coinciding with the L. palor. The Corn. pirgrin and Arm. pirchirin, seem to be the L. peregrinus. The D. palsrok, a pilgrim's coat, and palsterstok, a pilgrim's staff, indicate that the first syllable is from the root of L. palor, to wander. The uncertainty of the true original orthography renders the derivation uncertain.]

1. A wanderer; a traveler; particularly, one that travels to a distance from his own country to visit a holy place, or to pay his devotion to the remains of dead saints. [See Pilgrimage.]
2. In Scripture, one that has only a temporary residence on earth. – Heb. xi.

PIL'GRIM, v.i.

To wander or ramble. [Not used.] – Grew.

PIL'GRIM-AGE, n.

1. A long journey, particularly a journey to some place deemed sacred and venerable, in order to pay devotion to the relics of some deceased saint. Thus in the middle ages, kings, princes, bishops and others made pilgrimages to Jerusalem, in pious devotion to the Savior. Pilgrims now resort to Loretto, in Italy, to visit the chamber of the Blessed Virgin, and the Mohammedans make pilgrimages to Mecca, where their prophet was buried.
2. In Scripture, the journey of human life. – Gen. xlvii.
3. Time irksomely spent. – Shak.

PIL'GRIM-IZE, v.i.

To wander about as a pilgrim. [Not used.] – B. Jonson.