vertical file
- noun
:
archivo vertical
- I'm relying heavily on press accounts, notes from various museum "vertical file" clippings, and downloaded stories from newspaper databases.
Examples
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The library has a dedicated section for vertical files where documents are organized in folders for easy access.
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For much of the century, librarians spent hours locating and organizing materials for vertical files.
Academic text (2015) -
The final culminating experience was creating a finding aid for the vertical files in the Mayibuye Archives.
Academic text (2015) -
Dupine handed Pearson's journals and J.J.'s vertical file back to the archivist, bid her a brusque farewell, and caught the number 55 bus to nearby Albany, getting off in front of the city library.
Fiction book (1991) -
In her office, she keeps the vertical files filled with important records sorted by project.
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To find historical documents quickly, researchers often refer to the vertical files that contain files stored upright.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A container for keeping papers and records
15
2.1
A piece of office furniture with drawers that hold papers
12
2.1
A piece of office furniture with drawers for storing paper files
How Organized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'vertical' (upright) with 'file' (a collection or storage of documents): it simply denotes a way of storing files upright. This is a literal, non-idiomatic composition common across languages and follows regular English adjective + noun patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Vertical file The noun vertical file comes from the simple image of folders kept standing 'upright' on their edges in a cabinet. The word vertical points to the 'upright' position and file means the folder, so the term now means a cabinet or system for storing documents that way.