file

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a set of related records kept together

   The file on the misbehaving student was hundreds of pages long.

2. 2
   verb

   record in a public office or in a court of law

   file for divorce

3. 3
   verb

   smooth with a file

   file one's fingernails

4. 4
   verb

   proceed in line

   The students filed into the classroom

5. 5
   noun

   A collection of papers collated and archived together.

   It is upon a file with the duke's other letters.

6. 6
   noun

   A roll or list.

   a file of all the gentry

7. 7
   noun

   A course of thought; a thread of narration.

   Let me resume the file of my narration.

8. 8
   noun

   An aggregation of data on a storage device, identified by a name.

   He had created a file for coding to design a new product.

Etymology

From Middle English file, fyle, from Old English fēl, fēol (“file”), from earlier fīil, from Proto-Germanic *finhlō, *finhilō (“file, rasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *peyḱ- (“to adorn, form”). Cognate with West Frisian file (“file”), Dutch vijl (“file”), German Feile (“file”).