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 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

But despite hammering those various points home with all the subtlety of a pile driver, her message ends up as muddled as the plot. —Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 25 Dec. 2020

Huge cranes and pile drivers have now joined the mix at the Protective Stadium construction site in Birmingham. —Anna Beahm | [e-mail], al, 7 Feb. 2020

Monica Gauthier, a pile driver near Portland, Oregon, had been unsuccessfully looking for work back in 2005 when someone told her about an upcoming job fair for women who might want to enter the field. —Amanda Abrams, Curbed, 5 Nov. 2018

In 1870, the first mayor of Seattle is elected: Henry Atkins, a pile driver who helped build docks and wharves on Puget Sound. —Morning Brief, The Seattle Times, 11 July 2018

Buy Photo The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited a Blackwood firm for safety violations in the death of a pile driver at a construction site on the Camden waterfront in September. —Joseph A. Gambardello, Philly.com, 30 Mar. 2018

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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