tile

Meanings

Noun

• A regularly-shaped slab of clay or other material, affixed to cover or decorate a surface, as in a roof-tile, glazed tile, stove tile, carpet tile etc.
• A rectangular graphic.
• Any of various flat cuboid playing pieces used in certain games, such as dominoes, Scrabble, or mahjong.
• A stiff hat.

Verb

• To cover with tiles.
• To arrange in a regular pattern, with adjoining edges (applied to tile-like objects, graphics, windows in a computer interface).
• To optimize (a loop in program code) by means of the tiling technique.
• To seal a lodge against intrusions from unauthorised people.
• To protect from the intrusion of the uninitiated.

Origin

• From Middle English tile, tyle, tigel, tiȝel, teȝele, from Old English tieġle, tiġle, tiġele, from Proto-West Germanic *tigulā, from Proto-Germanic *tigulǭ, from Latin tēgula. tegula.
• Cognate with Saterland Frisian Tichel, West Frisian teil, tegel, tichel, Dutch tichel, tegel, German Ziegel, Danish tegl, Swedish tegel, Icelandic tigl.
• See tiler.