piling

Pluralpilings

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A structural support made from a length of wood, steel, or other construction material driven into the ground.

   Engineers sank each piling until it reached bedrock far below the surface.

   The foundation rests on dozens of concrete pilings spaced evenly across the site.

   Similarpost, stake

2. 2
   noununcountable

   The action of heaping things up into a pile.

   The steady piling of debris after the storm clogged the drains.

   Rapid piling of orders during the holidays overwhelmed the small shop.

   Similaraccumulation, buildup

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of pile.

   Snow kept piling against the window as the storm raged.

   He is piling more responsibilities onto an already busy team.

   Note

   The -ing form of pile works on both sides of the object line. It is intransitive when snow keeps piling against a window and transitive when someone is piling work onto a team. As a gerund it comes close to the noun for heaping up. The test is the object: the gerund takes one directly (piling sandbags), while the noun needs of (the piling of sandbags).

4. 4
   noununcountable

   The process of building up, heating, and working faggots or piles of iron to form bars and similar products.

   Skilled labor and careful piling produced the wrought iron used for the bridge.

   Piling combined several iron pieces into a single, stronger bar.

   Note

   An ironworkers' method for welding many pieces of iron into one. Bars of puddled iron were bundled together, reheated to welding temperature, then rolled or hammered until the layers fused into wrought-iron bars or plates of more even quality. Here both faggot and pile name that bundle of metal, not firewood or a loose heap. The older spelling fagot appears alongside faggot.

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