tile

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /taɪl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtaɪ.əl/
• Rhymes: -aɪl

From Middle English tile, tyle, tigel, tiȝel, teȝele, from Old English tieġle, tiġle, tiġele (“tile; brick”), from Proto-West Germanic *tigulā, from Proto-Germanic *tigulǭ (“tile”), from Latin tēgula. Doublet of tegula.

tile (plural tiles)

1. A regularly-shaped slab of clay or other material, affixed to cover or decorate a surface, as in a roof-tile, glazed tile, stove tile, carpet tile, etc.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.

2. (computing) A rectangular graphic.

   Each tile within the map consists of 256 × 256 pixels.

   Sprites and tiles that are hidden in the prototype ROM file can be recovered.

3. Any of various flat cuboid playing pieces used in certain games, such as dominoes, Scrabble, or mahjong.
4. (dated, informal) A stiff hat.
   • 1865, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions:

     Tile - Tile, a Hat.

   • 1911, Charles Collins, Fred E. Terry and E.A. Sheppard, "Any Old Iron", British Music Hall song

     Dressed in style, brand-new tile, And your father's old green tie on.

   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     Thus, when old Doctor Meldrum, with his well-known curly-brimmed opera-hat, appeared upon the platform, there was such a universal query of "Where did you get that tile?" that he hurriedly removed it, and concealed it furtively under his chair.

• → Bengali: টালি (ṭali)
• → Japanese: タイル (tairu)
• → Korean: 타일 (tail)
• → Nepali: टाइल (ṭāil)
• → Odia: ଟାଇଲ୍ (ṭail)
• → Welsh: teils

tile (third-person singular simple present tiles, present participle tiling, simple past and past participle tiled)

1. (transitive) To cover with tiles.

   The handyman tiled the kitchen.

   White marble tiled the bathroom.

   • 1980, Robert M. Jones, editor, Walls and Ceilings, Time-Life Books, →ISBN, page 38:

     Some professionals begin tiling a wall by setting a full tile in the most visually prominent corner […]

2. (graphical user interface) To arrange in a regular pattern, with adjoining edges (applied to tile-like objects, graphics, windows in a computer interface).
3. (computing theory) To optimize (a loop in program code) by means of the tiling technique.
4. (Freemasonry) To seal a lodge against intrusions from unauthorised people.

• tiler

See tiler (“doorkeeper at a Masonic lodge”).

• tyle

tile (third-person singular simple present tiles, present participle tiling, simple past and past participle tiled)

1. To protect from the intrusion of the uninitiated.

   to tile a Masonic lodge

   tile the door

• Tile Hill

• -lite, IELT, Tiel, lite, teil, tiel

tìlé

1. sun
2. day, daytime, the heat of the day
3. epoch, era

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

tile m (genitive singular tile, nominative plural tilí)

1. (nautical, literary) board, plank (of boat)
2. (nautical)
   1. sheets
   2. poop

• ráille tile (“poop-rail”)
• tile tosaigh (“fore-sheet”)
• tile deiridh (“stern-sheet”)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “tile”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Entries containing “tile” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “tile” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

tile

1. locative singular of tila (“sesame”)

Borrowed from Pipil tlilli.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtile/ [ˈt̪i.le]
• Rhymes: -ile
• Syllabification: ti‧le

tile m (plural tiles)

1. (El Salvador, Honduras) soot

   Synonym: hollín

2. (poetic, Honduras) darkness

   Synonym: oscuridad

3. (colloquial, Honduras) hard, complicated

• “tile”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
• tile | Diccionario de americanismos | ASALE