TILE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Tile

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/taɪl/ Listen

noun

Tile n.

1.

A plate, or thin piece, of baked clay, used for covering the roofs of buildings, for floors, for drains, and often for ornamental mantel works.

2.

(Arch.)

(a)

A small slab of marble or other material used for flooring.

(b)

A plate of metal used for roofing.

3.

(Metal.) A small, flat piece of dried earth or earthenware, used to cover vessels in which metals are fused.

4.

A draintile.

5.

A stiff hat. (Colloq.)

Tile drain, a drain made of tiles.

Tile earth, a species of strong, clayey earth; stiff and stubborn land. (Prov. Eng.)

Tile kiln, a kiln in which tiles are burnt; a tilery.

Tile ore (Min.), an earthy variety of cuprite.

Tile red, light red like the color of tiles or bricks.

Tile tea, a kind of hard, flat brick tea. See Brick tea, under Brick.

verb

Tile v. t. To protect from the intrusion of the uninitiated; as, to tile a Masonic lodge.

Tile v. t. (past & past part. tiled; pres. part. tiling)

1.

To cover with tiles; as, to tile a house.

2.

Fig.: To cover, as if with tiles. "The muscle, sinew, and vein, Which tile this house, will come again."

See images of 'Tile'

Etymology of 'Tile'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tile" Quotes from Famous Books

... road; on either hand some half-dozen cottages with roofs of thatch or red tile, backed by trees gnarled and ancient, among which rises the red conical roof of some oast-house. Such, in ...

— The Broad Highway • Jeffery Farnol

... in front of the house and once more found there the same murmuring palms, the same rubblework benches with seats and backs of flowered tile that he knew so well. There, in fact, she had so often laughed at his ...

— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

... works in broad daylight, on a tile, on a pebble, on a branch in the hedge; none of her trade-practises is kept a secret from the observer's curiosity. The Osmia loves mystery. She wants a dark retreat, hidden from the eye. I would like, nevertheless, to watch her in the privacy ...

— Bramble-bees and Others • J. Henri Fabre

... important for you, my dear Franz, is to complete your Ion [The original tile of the Opera now called "L'Apollonide", which Servais still keeps in his portfolio, though it is finished.]. This will be your advent as composer, for a complete and resounding success in which you have the ...

— Letters of Franz Liszt, Volume 2: "From Rome to the End" • Franz Liszt; letters collected by La Mara and translated

... a brickbat)—Ver. 187. "Laterem lavare," "to wash a brick," or "tile," was a proverb signifying labor in vain, probably because (if the brick was previously baked) it was impossible to wash away the red color of it. According to some, the saying alluded to the act of washing a brick which had been only dried in the sun, in which case the party so doing ...

— The Comedies of Terence - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Notes • Publius Terentius Afer, (AKA) Terence

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