Definitions for the word "file" from multiple English dictionaries.
1. n.
An orderly succession; a line; a row
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
2. n.
A row of soldiers ranged one behind another; -- in contradistinction to rank, which designates a row of soldiers standing abreast; a number consisting the depth of a body of troops, which, in the ordinary modern formation, consists of two men, the battalion standing two deep, or in two ranks.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
3. n.
An orderly collection of papers, arranged in sequence or classified for preservation and reference; as, files of letters or of newspapers; this mail brings English files to the 15th instant.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
4. n.
The line, wire, or other contrivance, by which papers are put and kept in order.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
5. n.
A roll or list.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
6. n.
Course of thought; thread of narration.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
7. v. t.
To set in order; to arrange, or lay away, esp. as papers in a methodical manner for preservation and reverence; to place on file; to insert in its proper place in an arranged body of papers.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
8. v. t.
To bring before a court or legislative body by presenting proper papers in a regular way; as, to file a petition or bill.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
9. v. t.
To put upon the files or among the records of a court; to note on (a paper) the fact date of its reception in court.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
10. v. i.
To march in a file or line, as soldiers, not abreast, but one after another; -- generally with off.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
11. n.
A steel instrument, having cutting ridges or teeth, made by indentation with a chisel, used for abrading or smoothing other substances, as metals, wood, etc.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
12. n.
Anything employed to smooth, polish, or rasp, literally or figuratively.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
13. n.
A shrewd or artful person.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
14. v. t.
To rub, smooth, or cut away, with a file; to sharpen with a file; as, to file a saw or a tooth.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
15. v. t.
To smooth or polish as with a file.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
16. v. t.
To make foul; to defile.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
17. n.
1 folder, box, etc., for holding loose papers. 2 papers kept in this. 3 computing collection of (usu. Related) data stored under one name. 4 line of people or things one behind another. v. (-ling) 1 place (papers) in a file or among (esp. Public) records. 2 submit (a petition for divorce, a patent application, etc.). 3 (of a reporter) send (copy) to a newspaper. 4 walk in a line. [latin filum thread]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
18. n.
Tool with a roughened surface for smoothing or shaping wood, fingernails, etc. v. (-ling) smooth or shape with a file. [old english]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
19. slang
a deep or artful man, a jocose name for a cunning person.
Originally a term for a pickpocket, when to FILE was to cheat or rob.
FILE, an artful man, was used in the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. To deal with an artful man is sometimes said to be like
biting a FILE.
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864
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Additional Info
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