Forms: 3 south. vile, 4–7 fyle, (5 fylin), 6 fill, 5– file. [f. FILE sb.1; cf. OHG. fîlôn (MHG. vîlen, mod.G. feilen), Du. vijlen.]
1. trans. To rub smooth, reduce the surface of, with a file. To file (one’s) teeth: (fig.) to render harmless. To file in (or † a) two: to cut in two by filing.
In the contextual use ‘to sharpen’ (weapons) sometimes associated with AFFILE.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 284. And nis þet iren acursed þet iwurðeð þe swarture & þe ruhure so hit is ofture & more iviled?
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2225.
| A deneȝ ax nwe dyȝt, þe dynt with [t]o ȝelde | |
| With a borelych bytte, bende by þe halme, | |
| Fyled in a fylor, fowre fote large. |
c. 1420. Chron. Vilad., 354. And a file to file þis nayle a two.
1542–3. Act 34–5 Hen. VIII., c 6. Pinnes … shal … haue … the point well and rounde, filled, canted and sharped.
1553. Eden, Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.), 16. When this beast [Rhinoceros] attempteth to inuade the Elephant, he fyleth and whetteth his horne on a stone and stryketh at the belly of the Elephant.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., i. 6. It is to late to worme you, and preuent your madding, but time enough to file your teeth, or muzzle you, to keepe you from biting.
1696. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 65. Some persons are committed for fyling the edges of new shillings.
1787. Holcroft, trans. Life Baron Trenck (1886), II. 33. I filed the iron which passed through it on the inside; and the more I filed this away, the farther I could draw the cap down.
1876. Voyle, A Military Dictionary (ed. 3), 138/1. File…. The file produces minute and irregular furrows of nearly equal depth, leaving the surface that has been filed more or less smooth.
absol. 1680. Cotton, Compl. Gamester i. (ed. 2), 10. Others have made them [false dice] by filing and rounding.
1888. Hasluck, The Mechanic’s Workshop Handybook, 85. Take an old file and file away steadily.
b. fig. To remove the roughness of; to smooth, polish, elaborate to perfection. Also, to wear down; to bring into (a certain condition) as if by filing.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 3812. His tunge was fyled sharpe & square.
1551. Recorde, Pathw. Knowl., title-page.
| All fresshe fine wittes by me are filed, | |
| All grosse dull wittes wishe me exiled: | |
| Thoughe no mannes witte reiect will I, | |
| Yet as they be, I wyll them trye. |
1568. T. Howell, Arb. Amitie (1879), 99.
| But nowe me must depart, | |
| false wordes false friend men say, | |
| Nor he that files his smoothed speeche, | |
| is faithfull friend alway. |
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonnet lxxxv.
| My tongue-tied muse in manners holds her still, | |
| While comments of your praise, richly compil’d, | |
| Reserve their character with golden quill, | |
| And precious phrase by all the muses fil’d. |
1700. Dryden, Fables, Pref. Wks. (Globe), 494. Dante had begun to file their Language, at least in Verse.
1757. Wesley, Wks. Jrnl. (1872), IX. 192. All these talents he [Taylor] exerts to the uttermost, on a favourite subject, in the Treatise before us; which he has had leisure for many years to revise, file, correct, and strengthen against all objections.
1820. Scott, Ivanhoe, ii. Take my advice, and file your tongue to a little more courtesy than your habits of predominating over infidel captives and Eastern bondsmen have accustomed you.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xlii. His lips were bloodless, and his bones sharp and thin. God help him! the iron teeth of confinement and privation had been slowly filing them down for twenty years.
1889. Baring-Gould, Arminell, l., in Temple Bar Mag., LXXXVII. Nov., 406. Lads who would be filed into business shape, who were disciplinable to take a special line, not young men educated already and with their heads stuffed with matter utterly useless for business.
2. To remove (roughnesses, part of a surface, etc.) by filing. Now only with away, off. Also fig.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 184. He is þi uile & uileð awei al þi rust.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xxvii. (1611), 241. They which would file away most from the largenesse of that offer, do notwithstanding in more sparing termes acknowledge little lesse.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Advice of Son (1651), 7. Death hath already filed from you the better part of your natural forces, and left you now to be lees and remissals of your wearyish and dying dayes.
1625. Fletcher, Noble Gent., I. i.
| Learns them a manly boldness, gives their tongues | |
| Sweetness of language, makes them apt to please, | |
| Files off all rudeness and uncivil ’haviour, | |
| Shews them as neat in carriage as in clothes. |
1670. Clarendon, Ess., Tracts (1727), 216. He will never file away the Stain that may yet remain in his Skin, with an Instrument that will open all his Veins, till his very Heart’s Blood issue and be drawn out.
1707. Norris, Treat. Humility, iii. 154. It [Humility] sweetens our Temper, plains and smooths our Humour, files off the roughnesses of our Passions, with all that ill Nature which covers it self under the fashionable pretence of the Spleen, and so almost in the very litteral sense polishes our Conversation.
1833. J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 291. They adjusted the balance by filing away some of the thickness of the longest part of the beam.
1850. H. Rogers, Ess., II. iv. 204. What was required was to file away asperities [in language], to throw out redundancies, to refine barbarisms, to bring into greater accordance with the analogies of the language words still half exotic in form, to refine what was worthy of being refined, and to reject the ore which would not pay for the cost of smelting.
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, 620.
| Read but one book, and ever reading grew | |
| So grated down and filed away with thought. |
