To rub or cut with a file, or as if with a file; render smooth, sharp, even, etc., by rubbing with a file; remove with a file: as, to file a saw; to file off a tooth.
Figuratively, to smooth; polish; correct; improve.
To defile; pollute; contaminate; degrade.
To place or fasten on a file; fasten, as papers, on a line or wire, for preservation; hence, to arrange in order, or insert in a bundle, as papers; arrange in a given order; classify.
Specifically To place in due manner, as a document, among the records of a court or a public office.
To receive, or receive and indorse, as a document so placed.
To march in a file or line, as soldiers, not abreast, but one after another.
noun.
A metal (usually steel) tool, having a rectangular, triangular, round, or irregular section, and either tapering or of uniform width and thickness, covered on one or more of its surfaces with teeth or transverse or oblique ridges, used for abrading, reducing, or smoothing metal, ivory, wood, or other resistant materials. See phrases below.
noun.
Figuratively, any means employed to refine or polish something, as literary style.
noun.
In entomology, a surface covered with fine parallel ridges, on which another surface can be rubbed, producing the sound called stridulation. These organs are found on various parts of the body, as the wings, thorax, and abdomen.
noun.
The rough spines of a sea-urchin, as a cidarid.
noun.
A thread, string, or line; particularly, a line or wire on which papers are strung in due order for preservation and reference.
noun.
The whole number of papers thus arranged; hence, a collection of papers arranged according to date or subject for the sake of ready reference; also, a bundle of papers tied together with the title of each indorsed: as, a file of newspapers; a file of writs.
noun.
A roll, list, or catalogue.
noun.
A docket; a calendar.
noun.
A row of persons or things arranged one behind another; military, a row of soldiers forming a line from front to rear; the number of men constituting the depth of a battalion or squadron.
noun.
Regular succession of thought or narration; uniform tenor; thread of discourse.
noun.
One of the lines of squares on a chess-board running directly from player to player: opposed to rank. See chess.
noun.
Same as rank and file. See phrase below.
noun.
In some parts of the United States, a cloth used in cleaning or wiping a floor. Also file-cloth.
noun.
In heraldry, same as label.
noun.
Hence— The general body of any party or society, as distinguished from the leaders.
Vile.
noun.
A wretch; a villain: a vague term of abuse.
noun.
A pickpocket; a thief.
noun.
[See etym.] A hard, cunning person; a shrewd person; a deep or artful man: as, a sly old file.
noun.
An individual soldier.