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File   /faɪl/   Listen
noun
File  n.  
1.
An orderly succession; a line; a row; as:
(a)
(Mil.) 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. Note: The number of files in a company describes its width, as the number of ranks does its depth; thus, 100 men in "fours deep" would be spoken of as 25 files in 4 ranks.
(b)
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.
(c)
The line, wire, or other contrivance, by which papers are put and kept in order. "It is upon a file with the duke's other letters."
(d)
A roll or list. "A file of all the gentry."
2.
Course of thought; thread of narration. (Obs.) "Let me resume the file of my narration."
3.
(computers) A collection of data on a digital recording medium treated as a unit for the purpose of recording, reading, storage, or indexing; such a file is typically accessible by computer programs by the use of a file name. The data may be of any type codable digitally, such as simple ASCII-coded text, complex binary-coded data, or an executable program, or may be itself a collection of other files.
File firing, the act of firing by file, or each file independently of others.
File leader, the soldier at the front of any file, who covers and leads those in rear of him.
File marching, the marching of a line two deep, when faced to the right or left, so that the front and rear rank march side by side.
Indian file, or Single file, a line of people marching one behind another; a single row. Also used adverbially; as, to march Indian file.
On file, preserved in an orderly collection; recorded in some database.
Rank and file.
(a)
The body of soldiers constituting the mass of an army, including corporals and privates.
(b)
Those who constitute the bulk or working members of a party, society, etc., in distinction from the leaders.


File  n.  
1.
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. Note: A file differs from a rasp in having the furrows made by straight cuts of a chisel, either single or crossed, while the rasp has coarse, single teeth, raised by the pyramidal end of a triangular punch.
2.
Anything employed to smooth, polish, or rasp, literally or figuratively. "Mock the nice touches of the critic's file."
3.
A shrewd or artful person. (Slang) "Will is an old file in spite of his smooth face."
Bastard file, Cross file, etc. See under Bastard, Cross, etc.
Cross-cut file, a file having two sets of teeth crossing obliquely.
File blank, a steel blank shaped and ground ready for cutting to form a file.
File cutter, a maker of files.
Second-cut file, a file having teeth of a grade next finer than bastard.
Single-cut file, a file having only one set of parallel teeth; a float.
Smooth file, a file having teeth so fine as to make an almost smooth surface.


verb
File  v. t.  (past & past part. filed; pres. part. filing)  
1.
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. "I would have my several courses and my dishes well filed."
2.
To bring before a court or legislative body by presenting proper papers in a regular way; as, to file a petition or bill.
3.
(Law) 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. "To file a paper, on the part of a party, is to place it in the official custody of the clerk. To file, on the part of the clerk, is to indorse upon the paper the date of its reception, and retain it in his office, subject to inspection by whomsoever it may concern."


File  v. t.  
1.
To rub, smooth, or cut away, with a file; to sharpen with a file; as, to file a saw or a tooth.
2.
To smooth or polish as with a file. "File your tongue to a little more courtesy."


File  v. t.  To make foul; to defile. (Obs.) "All his hairy breast with blood was filed." "For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind."


File  v. i.  (Mil.) To march in a file or line, as soldiers, not abreast, but one after another; generally with off.
To file with, to follow closely, as one soldier after another in file; to keep pace. "My endeavors Have ever come too short of my desires, Yet filed with my abilities."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"File" Quotes from Famous Books



... all sorts and conditions, our boat-mates: a few famous throughout the world, as the player Mounet-Sully, the painter Benjamin Constant, the prose poet Paul Arene; many famous throughout France; and even in the rank and file few who had not raised themselves above the multitude in one or another of the domains of art. And all of them were bound together in a democratic brotherhood, which yet—because the absolute essential to membership in it was genius—was an artistic aristocracy. With their spiritual honours had ...
— The Christmas Kalends of Provence - And Some Other Provencal Festivals • Thomas A. Janvier
... miles of rice-fields, white-speckled with paper-winged shafts which are arrows of prayer. Always the voice of frogs—a sound as of infinite bubbling. Always the green range on the left, the purple on the right, fading westward into a tall file of tinted spectres which always melt into nothing at last, as if they were made of air. The monotony of the scene is broken only by our occasional passing through some pretty Japanese village, or by ...
— Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan - First Series • Lafcadio Hearn
... direction than in any other. Men early learnt to recognize this peculiarity, and to take advantage of it in attacking rock. With their stone hammers they struck in straight lines, always aiming at the same points, and then, probably with the help of a fierce file, they succeeded in breaking off fragments. They also employed wedges of wood, which they drove into natural or artificial fissures, pouring water on to this wedge again and again. The wood became swollen with the damp, and in course of time a block of stone would be detached. ...
— Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples • The Marquis de Nadaillac
... bow they quiver and flash Where the clouds send their cavalry down! Rank and file by the million the rain-lancers dash Over mountain and river and town: Thick the battle-drops fall—but they drip not in blood; The trophy of war is the green fresh bud: Oh, the rain, ...
— The Evolution of Expression Vol. I • Charles Wesley Emerson
... become incorporated in a confederation of the several States and Colonies of South Africa under the British Crown. There were probably others among the leaders who shared this purpose; but some did not, and here was a question which would seem to have divided the chiefs as it divided the rank and file. A rising there was to be. But under what flag? This vital point was left unsettled, and at the last moment it ...
— Impressions of South Africa • James Bryce


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