Pile vs Wad - What's the difference?
pile | wad |
(obsolete) A dart; an arrow.
The head of an arrow or spear.
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.
* {{quote-book, year=1719
, edition=10th edition
, year_published=1864
, author=
, title=
, chapter=
, section=Chapter VI
(heraldiccharge) One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
To drive s into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
* {{quote-book, year=1889
, author=
, title=
, volume_plain=Book II: The Fall of Harmachis
, section=Chapter XI
(figuratively, informal) A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
* {{quote-news, year=2011
, date=December 29
, author=Keith Jackson
, title=SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0
, work=Daily Record
A mass formed in layers.
A funeral pile; a pyre.
A large building, or mass of buildings.
* Dryden
* 1817 , (Walter Scott), Rob Roy , II.2:
* Thomas Hardy, The Well-Beloved
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.
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.
(obsolete) The reverse (or tails) of a coin.
(figuratively) A list or league
* '>citation
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.
To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= To add something to a great number.
* {{quote-news, year=2010, date=December 28, author=Owen Phillips, work=BBC
, title= (of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
(military) To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.
Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
* (William Cowper)
An amorphous, compact mass.
A substantial pile (normally of money).
A soft plug or seal, particularly as used between the powder and pellets in a shotgun cartridge.
(slang) A sandwich.
(vulgar, slang) An ejaculate of semen.
(mineralogy) Any black manganese oxide or hydroxide mineral rich rock in the oxidized zone of various ore deposits.
To crumple or crush into a compact, amorphous shape or ball.
(Ulster) To wager.
To insert or force a wad into.
To stuff or line with some soft substance, or wadding, like cotton.
Wad is a synonym of pile.
As nouns the difference between pile and wad
is that pile is a dart; an arrow while wad is an amorphous, compact mass.As verbs the difference between pile and wad
is that pile is to drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles while wad is to crumple or crush into a compact, amorphous shape or ball.As an acronym WAD is
it works as designed.pile
English
Etymology 1
(etyl) . Cognate with Dutch pijl, German Pfeil.Noun
(en noun)citation, page=68 , passage=All this time I worked very hard [...] and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour everything was done with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods and driving them into the ground; for I made them much bigger than I needed to have done.}}
Derived terms
* pile bridge * pile cap * pile driver * pile dwelling * pile engine * pile plank * pneumatic pile * screw pileVerb
(pil)Etymology 2
Apparently from pilus.Etymology 3
From (etyl) pile, (pille), from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)citation, isbn=1555211224 , page= , passage=I climbed through, and, standing on a pile of stones, lifted and dragged Cleopatra after me.}}
- When we were looking for a new housemate, we put the nice woman on the "maybe" pile''', and the annoying guy on the "no" '''pile .
citation, page= , passage=And the moment it thumped into the net, Celtic’s march back to the top of the SPL pile also seemed unstoppable.}}
- a pile of shot
- (Dryden)
- The pile o'erlooked the town and drew the fight.
- The pile is of a gloomy and massive, rather than of an elegant, style of Gothic architecture
- 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
- 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 alsoVerb
(pil)Engineers of a different kind, passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
Sunderland 0-2 Blackpool, passage=But as the second half wore on, Sunderland piled forward at every opportunity and their relentless pressure looked certain to be rewarded in the closing stages. }}
Etymology 4
Partly from (etyl) pil (a variant of peil, .Noun
(en noun)- Velvet soft, or plush with shaggy pile .
Anagrams
* English terms with multiple etymologies ----wad
English
(wikipedia wad)Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Noun
(en noun)- Our cat loves to play with a small wad of paper.
- With a wad of cash like that, she should not have been walking round Manhattan
Derived terms
* (ejaculate) blow one's wad, shoot one's wadSee also
* (Wad)Verb
(wadd)- She wadded up the scrap of paper and threw it in the trash.
- to wad a gun
- to wad a cloak