pile driver

noun

plural pile drivers

1

a

: a machine for driving piles (see pile entry 1 sense 1) into the ground

b

: a person who operates a pile driver

2

usually piledriver

ˈpī(-ə)l-ˌdrī-vər 

or pile-driver plural piledrivers or pile-drivers, British, informal : a forceful hit or kick (as of a ball)

hit a pile-driver into the net from 20 yards out

3

usually piledriver or less commonly pile-driver : a wrestling move in which a wrestler seizes an opponent and drops to the floor driving the opponent headfirst into the mat

The turning point of the match took place when Garcia executed a picturesque piledriver on Casanova.

—Justin Barrasso

piledrive

ˈpī(-ə)l-ˌdrīv 

verb, transitive + intransitive

or pile drive or less commonly pile-drive

pile-drived or pile-drove ˈpī(-ə)l-ˌdrōv  also pile drove or piledrived or piledrove or pile drived; pile-driven ˈpī(-ə)l-ˌdri-vən  or pile driven also piledriven; pile-driving also pile driving or piledriving; piledrives also pile drives or pile-drives

piledrive an opponent

Skinner started his career pile driving back in 1979 …

—Surrey (British Columbia) Now-Leader

(figurative) pile-drived the competition

Examples of pile driver in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The sounds of construction — the slow beeps of a truck in reverse, a pile driver pounding the hard earth — filled the air. —Megan Kimble, New York Times, 31 May 2024

Carpenters, ironworkers, laborers, divers, operators, pile drivers, millwrights — the list goes on. —Kelvin Jordan, Baltimore Sun, 8 Apr. 2024

The universal nature of the pontoons permitted construction of an array of floating structures, including dredges, barges, floating cranes, workshops, storehouses and gas stations, tug boats, pile drivers and dry docks. —Frank A. Blazich Jr., The Conversation, 20 May 2024

Union pile drivers, according to DMV officials with the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, already lead the way in minority numbers in the region with 65% of them Black and 85% overall minority. —Kelvin Jordan, Baltimore Sun, 8 Apr. 2024

The inexorable advance of technological noise in the twentieth century—cars, airplanes, helicopters, pile drivers, lawnmowers, leaf blowers, home stereos, stadium sound systems—left the impression that the world was getting louder year by year. —Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 15 Apr. 2024

The song itself is booming, comparable to the clang of a chorus of pile drivers, according to the researchers who recorded it. —Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 17 Oct. 2023

Perforated pipes encircle the pile driver, blowing a wall of air bubbles that absorb and refract the noise, reducing it by as much as 15 dB. —Joseph Polidoro, Scientific American, 23 Feb. 2021

The project's general contractor, Lunda/McCrossan Joint Venture, has been installing giant vertical sheets of steel using a press-in pile driver to stabilize soil and make room for tunnel construction. —Janet Moore, Star Tribune, 9 June 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1744, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Kids Definition

pile driver

noun

: a machine for hammering piles into place