spile
/spaɪl/
spile noun: a splinter.
Noun (1)
spile (plural spiles)
- A splinter.
- A spigot or plug used to stop the hole in a barrel or cask.
- So I felt my way down the passage back to the vault, and recked not of the darkness, nor of Blackbeard and his crew, if only I could lay my lips to liquor. Thus I groped about the barrels till near the top of the stack my hand struck on the spile of a keg, and drawing it, I got my mouth to the hold.[1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC
- A spout inserted in a maple (or other tree) to draw off sap.
- Now, chamfering one end of the elderberry tube slightly to fit, I push it into the hole and wait. After a few seconds sap will begin to drip from the end of the tube, a tangible flow of life and vitality. […] Beneath the tube, properly called a spile, I place my cup to catch the drips.2023, Ray Mears, chapter 2, in British Woodland, Ebury Spotlight, →ISBN
Verb (1)
spile (third-person singular simple present spiles, present participle spiling, simple past and past participle spiled)
Noun (2)
spile (plural spiles)
- A pile; a post or girder.
- The bottom of the river is of hard, sparkling white sand, into which spiles are easily driven; and the building and keeping up of such a wharf is a trifling trouble...1873, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Palmetto-Leaves
- […]we'd settled that I’d pick up some spiles from Greg Fitch first thing on Monday morning and get something done about that fence.1975, Catherine Aird, Slight Mourning
Verb (2)
spile (third-person singular simple present spiles, present participle spiling, simple past and past participle spiled)
- To support by means of spiles.
- To drive piles into.
Verb (3)
spile (third-person singular simple present spiles, present participle spiling, simple past and past participle spiled)
Forms of spile
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | spiles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | spiles |
| present participle | spiling |
| past participle | spiled |
| past | spiled |
Origin of spile
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.
Words that rhyme with spile
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- gentile
- kyle
- reptile
- sile
- smile
- Lyle
- tile
- while
- beguile
- bile
- Nile
- argyll
- awhile
- enisle
- guile
- gyle
- I'll
- last mile
- nubile
- resile
- restyle
- rile
- senile
- stile
- vile
- autogynephile
- bewile
- chile
- chyle
- Cnile
- District of Argyle
- heil
- ile
- interfile
- isle
- Japanophile
- Kabyle
- kile
- like it's going out of style
- Persophile
- redial
- refile
- revile
- Styal
- thyle
- tickler file
- wile
- worthwhile
Questions about spile
- What does spile mean?
- Spile means a splinter.
- What part of speech is spile?
- Spile can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce spile?
- Spile is pronounced /spaɪl/.
- What is the plural of spile?
- The plural of spile is spiles.
Words near spile in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spile (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spile.wav.
Cite this entry: “spile.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spile. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.