tile
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /taɪl/
ipa: /ˈtaɪ.əl/
rhymes: -aɪl
Forms: form: tiles
Etymology: 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.
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tichel (“tile”), West Frisian teil, tegel, tichel (“tile”), Dutch tichel, tegel (“tile”), German Ziegel (“brick; tile”), Danish tegl (“brick”), Swedish tegel (“brick; tile”), Icelandic tigl (“tile; brick”).
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 3, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Each tile within the map consists of 256 × 256 pixels.
text: Sprites and tiles that are hidden in the prototype ROM file can be recovered.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: A rectangular graphic.
examples: text: One hot summer day in the Chinese city of Nan-ning, I wandered through a park of lotus leaves and exotic flowers to a pagoda where ancient women sat, drowsily, happily playing mahjongg amidst the scent of flowers, and that excellent sound of clicking tiles enchanted me; I was far from home, but that long slow summer afternoon with the mah-jongg sounds brought me back to my own continent and specifically to Mexicali, whose summer tranquillity never ends.
ref: 2005, William T. Vollmann, “They Came Out Like Ants!”, in Dave Eggers, editor, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2005 (Literature), Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 298:
glosses: Any of various flat cuboid playing pieces used in certain games, such as dominoes, Scrabble, or mahjong.
examples: text: Tile - Tile, a Hat.
ref: 1865, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions:
text: 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.
text: 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.
ref: 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
glosses: A stiff hat.
qualifier: Lego building
glosses: A Lego piece that is 1/3 the height of a brick, and is smooth without studs on top.
Derived terms: adaptive tile refresh
blue-tile fever
creasing tile
Dutch tile
encaustic tile
field tile
floating wood tile
floor tile
girih tile
glazed tile
out on the tiles
paving tile
pill tile
quarry tile
reflet tile
rep-tile
rest tile
ridge tile
roof tile
subway tile
tilefish
tile loose
tile-matching game
tile ore
tile red
tile saw
tile tracking
tilework
Truchet tile
undertile
vinyl composition tile
Wang tile
weeping tile