compiling

Verb

compile (third-person singular simple present compiles, present participle compiling, simple past and past participle compiled)

1. (transitive) To make by gathering pieces from various sources.
   • Samuel Johnson compiled one of the most influential dictionaries of the English language.
2. (obsolete) To construct; to build.
   • Before that Merlin dyde, he did intend / A brasen wall in compas to compyle / About Cairmardin […]1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
3. (transitive) To achieve (a break) by making a sequence of shots.
   • Steve Davis compiled a 147.
4. (transitive) To use a compiler to process source code and produce executable code.
   • After I compile this program I’ll run it and see if it works.
5. (intransitive) To be successfully processed by a compiler into executable code.
   • There must be an error in my source code because it won’t compile.
6. (obsolete, transitive) To contain or comprise.
   • After ſo long a race as I haue run / Through Faery land, vvhich thoſe ſix books cõpile [compile] / giue leaue to reſt me being halfe fordonne, / and gather to my ſelfe nevv breath avvhile.1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet LXXX”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, signature F, verso

See all 8 meanings of compile