Pill vs Pile - What's the difference?
pill | pile |
A small, usually cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication.
* 1864 , Benjamin Ellis, The Medical Formulary [http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC14843090&id=pHoMvHRmrlIC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=%22take+two+pills%22&as_brr=1]
(senseid) Contraceptive medication, usually in the form of a pill to be taken by a woman; an oral contraceptive pill.
* 1986 , Jurriaan Plesman,
(slang) A comical or entertaining person.
(slang) A contemptible, annoying, or unpleasant person.
* {{quote-book, year=1960
, author=
, title=(Jeeves in the Offing)
, section=chapter IV
, passage=You see, he's egging Phyllis on to marry Wilbert Cream. [...] And when a man like that eggs, something has to give, especially when the girl's a pill like Phyllis, who always does what Daddy tells her.}}
* 2000 , Susan Isaacs, Shining Through [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0061030155&id=6_1FJWFEYGoC&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=%22a+real+pill%22&sig=RCUR5O3MhNXeq8rMOnx9-LR5Mfo]
(informal) A small piece of any substance, for example a ball of fibres formed on the surface of a textile by rubbing.
* 1999 , Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0060987561&id=LOYeA9GmrEwC&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=%22sweater+pills%22&sig=U11GOkTpfHlqyGyIdk7ZNZ0GNuI]
A baseball.
* 2002 , John Klima, Pitched Battle: 35 of Baseball's Greatest Duels from the Mound [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0786412038&id=G126RsLD3MsC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=%22threw+the+pill%22&sig=NmyoxWN_bP5AHc9imVPMTxY7lvw]
(firearms) (informal) a bullet (projectile)
(textiles) Of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber.
* 1997 , Jo Sharp, Knitted Sweater Style: Inspirations in Color [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN1561581895&id=l5h-cGU5HUYC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=sweater+pilling&sig=6gfLWBL1QHVQZmbSYhJ4oipm8Kc]
To form into the shape of a pill.
To medicate with pills.
(label) To peel; to remove the outer layer of hair, skin, or bark.
To peel; to make by removing the skin.
*(Bible), (w) xxx. 37
*:[Jacob] pilled white streaksin the rods.
To be peeled; to peel off in flakes.
(label) To pillage; to despoil or impoverish.
*:
*:So syr Lucan departed for he was greuously wounded in many places And so as he yede he sawe and herkened by the mone lyght how that pyllars and robbers were comen in to the felde To pylle and robbe many a ful noble knyghte of brochys and bedys of many a good rynge & of many a ryche Iewel / and who that were not deed al oute
:(Spenser)
The peel or skin.
* Holland
(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)
In obsolete terms the difference between pill and pile
is that pill is to pillage; to despoil or impoverish while pile is the reverse (or tails) of a coin.As nouns the difference between pill and pile
is that pill is a small, usually cylindrical object designed for easy swallowing, usually containing some sort of medication while pile is a dart; an arrow.As verbs the difference between pill and pile
is that pill is of a woven fabric surface, to form small matted balls of fiber while pile is to drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.pill
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) or (etyl) pille (whence (etyl) pil), probably from (etyl) pilula.Noun
(en noun)- Take two pills every hour in the apyrexia of intermittent fever, until eight are taken.
- Jane went on the pill when she left for college.
- She got pregnant one month after going off the pill .
Getting Off the Hook: Treatment of Drug Addiction and Social Disorders Through Body and Mind:
- Many specialists are requesting that this vitamin be included in all contraceptive pills, as women on the pill have a tendency to be depressed.
- Instead, I saw a woman in her mid-fifties, who was a real pill ; while all the others had managed a decent “So pleased,” or even a plain “Hello,” Ginger just inclined her head, as if she was doing a Queen Mary imitation.
- One sleeve, threadbare and loaded with what my mother called “sweater pills ,” hung halfway to the floor.
- Mr. Fisher contributed to the Sox effort when he threw the pill past second baseman Rath after Felsch hit him a comebacker.
Synonyms
* (small object for swallowing) tabletDerived terms
* bitter pill to swallow * blue pill * chill pill * horse pill * morning-after pill * on the pill * pill beetle * pill bug * pill popper * red pill * sugar pill * pop pillsVerb
(en verb)- During processing, inferior short fibers (which can cause pilling and itching) are removed to enhance the natural softness of the yarn and to improve its wash-and-wear performance.
- Pilling is a skill rarely used by modern pharmacists.
- She pills herself with all sorts of herbal medicines.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
(en verb)Noun
(en noun)- Some be covered over with crusts, or hard pills , as the locusts.
Etymology 3
From (etyl) . More at (l).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 .