See Also: file(6)(dictionary)
file(dictionary)
file(7)(dictionary)
file(5)(dictionary)
file(4)(dictionary)
file(3)(dictionary)
file(2)(dictionary)
file(1)(dictionary)
file(encyclopedia)
File(medicine)

file(2) (iou)



file noun1.
[Old English (Anglian) fil = Old Saxon fila (Dutch vijl), Old High German fihala, fila (German Feile), from West Germanic.]
An instrument (now usu. of steel) with small raised cutting edges or teeth on its surface(s), used for smoothing or shaping objects. OE.
b. fig. Discipline or hardship imposed for the benefit or cleansing of the soul etc.; a person who or thing (personified) which imposes this. ME.
A person, esp. an artful person; a fellow, a cove. slang. E19.
Comb.: file-fish any of numerous, chiefly tropical, fishes of the family Balistidae with rough skin suggesting the surface of a file; file-shell any of various bivalve molluscs belonging to the genus Lima and related genera, with rough shells; file snake any of various snakes that resemble a file in shape or texture; spec. (a) a wart snake; (b) S. Afr. a non-venomous colubrid snake of the genus Mehelya.