A hair; hence, the fiber of wool, cotton, and the like; also, the nap when thick or heavy, as of carpeting and velvet.

A covering of hair or fur.

Often used to describe single-sided fleeces that are thicker and furrier than the typical two-sided fabrics.

surprise! Insulative pile is not a member of the fleece family. Rather than being one stretch of knit fabric, pile is made of cut staple fiber that's placed into a knit matrix. The fibers can stand taller than fleece tufts, so pile garments can be warmer. Pile can also be made of fabric blends like our GlenPile, which is a mixture of polyester and acrylic. The combination makes for a good-wicking fabric with an excellent warmth-to-weight ratio.

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.

A long, slender structural element used to transfer structural loads deep within the soil.

For wetland construction piles may be wooden logs, poles, or timbers, steel helixes, or concrete that is cast in place. A pile is usually no more than 12 inches in diameter. The pile is either placed in a hole dug to the depth required (end bearing pile), driven with a heavy weight (friction pile), or screwed into the ground by a machine (helical pile).

A long substantial pole of wood, concrete or metal, driven into the earth or sea bed to serve as a support or protection.

To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.

A mass of things heaped together; a heap; as, a pile of stones; a pile of wood.

A mass formed in layers; as, a pile of shot.

A large building, or mass of buildings.

A coat or surface of usually short close fine furry hairs

Dense undercoat of soft hair.

fine soft dense hair (as the fine short hair of cattle or deer or the wool of sheep or the undercoat of certain dogs)

Furry, hi lofted finish.

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.

a collection of objects laid on top of each other

battery consisting of voltaic cells arranged in series; the earliest electric battery devised by Volta

any set of cards laid on one another, possibly spread (q.v.) either vertically or horizontally.

An older term for nuclear reactor. See; Reactor.

a nuclear reactor that uses controlled nuclear fission to generate energy

The term "Pile" refers to a nuclear reactor. Coined by Enrico Fermi at the Met Lab, it was based on the first rudimentary nuclear reactor which was nothing more than a pile of uranium and graphite blocks. Later on the term was carried forward to Hanford where the giant reactors became known as Pile B, Pile D, etc. Photograph