1. A steel instrument, having
cutting ridges or teeth, made by
indentation with a chisel, used for abrading or smoothing another substances, as metals, tree, etc.
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
glorious touches of the critic's file." (Akenside)
3. A
shrewd or artful face. "Will is an
old file spite of
his smooth face." (Thackeray) Bastard file, Cross file, etc. See 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 following finer than bastard. Single-cut file, a
file having only one
set of
parallel teeth; a float. Smooth file, a
file having
teeth so beautiful as to create an nearly
smooth surface.
Origin: AS. Feol;
akin to D. Viji, OHG. Fila, fihala, G. Feile, Sw. Fil, Dan. Fiil, cf. Icel. L, Russ. Pila, and Skr. Pi to
cut out, adorn; perh. Akin to E. Paint.
To create ful; to defile. "All
his hairy breast with
blood was filed.Spenser." "For Banquo's issue have I filed mind.Shak."
Origin: OE. Fulen, filen, foulen, AS. Flan, fr. Fl foul. See Foul, and cf. Defile, v.t.
Source: Websters Vocabulary