Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
noun
A splinter.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Cumbria, dialectal, obsolete
Qualifier: Lancashire
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A spigot or plug used to stop the hole in a barrel or cask.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A spout inserted in a maple (or other tree) to draw off sap.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A pile; a post or girder.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To plug (a hole) with a spile.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To draw off (a liquid) using a spile.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To provide (a barrel, tree etc.) with a spile.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To support by means of spiles.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To drive piles into.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
spoil.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: US, ambitransitive, dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a plug used to close a hole in a barrel or flask
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: bung
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: plug, stopper, stopple
noun
a column of wood or steel or concrete that is driven into the ground to provide support for a structure
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: pile, piling, stilt
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: column, pillar
Narrower terms: sheet pile, sheath pile, sheet piling
History
From Middle Dutch or Middle Low German spile (“splinter, peg”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *spīlaz (“splinter, peg”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“prickle, pointed stick”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian spyl, German Speil (“chip, splinter, gore, wedge”), Danish spile, Dutch spijl.
Alteration of pile, after Etymology 1, above.
Alteration of spoil.
