TILE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tile mean? 

• TILE (noun)
  The noun TILE has 3 senses:

1. a flat thin rectangular slab (as of fired clay or rubber or linoleum) used to cover surfaces

2. a thin flat slab of fired clay used for roofing

3. game equipment consisting of a flat thin piece marked with characters and used in board games like Mah-Jong, Scrabble, etc.

  Familiarity information: TILE used as a noun is uncommon.

• TILE (verb)
  The verb TILE has 1 sense:

1. cover with tiles

  Familiarity information: TILE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TILE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A flat thin rectangular slab (as of fired clay or rubber or linoleum) used to cover surfaces

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("tile" is a kind of...):

slab (block consisting of a thick piece of something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tile"):

tessera (a small square tile of stone or glass used in making mosaics)

Holonyms ("tile" is a part of...):

tile roof (a roof made of fired clay tiles)

Derivation:

tile (cover with tiles)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A thin flat slab of fired clay used for roofing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

roofing tile; tile

Hypernyms ("tile" is a kind of...):

roofing material (building material used in constructing roofs)

Meronyms (substance of "tile"):

clay (a very fine-grained soil that is plastic when moist but hard when fired)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tile"):

hip tile; hipped tile (a tile shaped so as to cover the hip of a hip roof)

pantile (a roofing tile with a S-shape; laid so that curves overlap)

ridge tile (a decorative tile that is bent in cross section; used to cover the ridge of a roof)

Derivation:

tile (cover with tiles)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Game equipment consisting of a flat thin piece marked with characters and used in board games like Mah-Jong, Scrabble, etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("tile" is a kind of...):

man; piece (game equipment consisting of an object used in playing certain board games)

• TILE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they tile    ... he / she / it tiles   
Past simple: tiled   
Past participle: tiled   
-ing form: tiling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cover with tiles

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

tile the wall and the floor of the bathroom

Hypernyms (to "tile" is one way to...):

cover (provide with a covering or cause to be covered)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tile"):

tessellate (tile with tesserae)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

tile (a flat thin rectangular slab (as of fired clay or rubber or linoleum) used to cover surfaces)

tile (a thin flat slab of fired clay used for roofing)

tiler (a worker who lays tile)

tiling (the application of tiles to cover a surface)

 Context examples 

Unfortunately, the path was tiled at that point.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

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?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Here she was, in the tiled kitchen, cooking dinner!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Some distance off, across a paddock, lay a long grey-tiled out-building.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her best tile got a splash of water, which left a sepia tear on the Cupid's cheek.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

My uncle eased them and glanced at his watch as we saw the grey tiles and dingy red houses of Reigate in the hollow beneath us.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The peasant made the raven croak again, and said: In the second place, he says that there is some roast meat in the tiled stove.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The floor was of polished tiles, with a square of red and black diapered Flemish carpet in the centre; and many settees, cushions, folding chairs, and carved bancals littered all over it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He argued, that the very laws of nature absolutely required we should have been made, in the beginning of a size more large and robust; not so liable to destruction from every little accident, of a tile falling from a house, or a stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned in a little brook.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

As a house, Barton Cottage, though small, was comfortable and compact; but as a cottage it was defective, for the building was regular, the roof was tiled, the window shutters were not painted green, nor were the walls covered with honeysuckles.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)