pile driver
1
6.8
- noun
- /ˈpaɪl ˈdraɪvər/
- Specialized
:
martillo de pilotes
- By the time turtle nesting season began on May 1, the seawalls were finished, and the trucks, bulldozers, cranes, and pile drivers all had pulled out.
Examples
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Flying pile driver.
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That is not a Louisiana pile driver.
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Give him the pile driver, honey.
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Oh, that's a pile driver.
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"Something nearby began pounding like a pile driver.
Fiction book (2002) -
That's right, my friend, it's a pile-driver!
-
It's called a pile-driver.
-
A pile driver from the Dresden-based Lehr firm was slowly wheezing deep in the trench of the old moat.
Fiction book (2000) -
When the 10,000-pound pile driver pushed down the sixty-foot solid pine in the swampy land, the board of directors of Savannah Shipyards was present, including President William R. Crowley and Treasurer Frank Cohen.
Academic text (2009) -
The construction crew used a pile driver to firmly embed the supports for the new building.
Synonyms
A heavy machine that drives long posts or beams into the ground
A heavy construction machine that uses a diesel engine to drive piles into the ground
A heavy machine that uses diesel to drive long metal posts deep into the ground for foundations
A construction machine that uses strong, fast shaking to push or pull long posts into the ground
A machine that uses strong shaking to push or pull long metal posts into the ground
How Powerful
- Specialized
1
6.8
- Specialized
- Specialized
1
7.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
pile + driver
The meaning is directly compositional: 'pile' (a long column driven into soil) combined with 'driver' (one who drives) yields a person or machine that drives piles. This agentive compound follows a regular and cross-linguistically common pattern (N + driver) so a B1 learner who knows the constituents would readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Pile driver is a name from building work: a pile is a long post used for foundations and a driver is the thing that pushes it into the ground. The image of a big hammer hitting those posts explains why the phrase means a heavy machine that 'drives' piles into the earth.