Also 5–7 fyle, (fill, fyll) [f. FILE sb.2]
1. trans. † To string upon a thread (obs.); to place (documents) on a file; to place (papers) in consecutive order for preservation and reference. Also, † to file together, up (obs.).
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 613. Their maner is to bore holes through them, and then to file them vp into chains and collars with haires of elephants.
1625. B. Jonson, The Staple of Newes, I. i.
| They mannage all at home, and sort, and file, | |
| And seale the newes, and issue them. |
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pinto’s Trav., xxxvi. 142. At her armpits hung a many of little idols not above half a finger long filed together.
1682. Grew, Anat. Plants, Preface, 3. A Letter … now filed amongst others in the Custody of the Royal Society.
1770. Franklin, Wks., 25 Sept. (1887), IV. 364. We hear that, from the time of her Majesty’s leaving Craven-Street House to this day, no care is taken to file the newspapers; but they lie about in every room, in every window, and on every chair, just where the Doctor lays them when he has read them. It is impossible government can long go on in such hands.
1865. Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. ii. Standing at the little desk in the corner where Miss Abbey filed her receipts and kept her sample vials.
transf. and fig. 1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 292. Let not this accusation of Osorius be filed vppe amongst the other hys false reproches and lyes.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. ii. 32.
| Dan Chaucer, well of English vndefyled, | |
| On Fames eternall beadroll worthie to by fyled. |
1632. Massinger, Maid of Hon., IV. iii.
| Ador. I am no churchman: | |
| Such a one must file it on record. |
1647. Sir R. Fanshawe, trans. Guarini’s Pastor Fido, 187.
| Mon. Thou dost file | |
| One Lye upon another well. |
1753. J. Short, in Phil. Trans., XLVIII. 14. This inadvertance, however, of his own F. Frisi charges upon Sir Isaac Newton; and files it up, as the sixth of the errors, which he says have been discovered in the Principia.
1778. Arminian Mag., I. 210. Were the reprobates, for whom you say, Christ died not, fewer than the elect, yet the sad apprehension of those eternal torments fatally linked to the end of that horrible decree, would prompt me to entertain fears and jealousies more than enough, lest I should be filed upon that chain, having no assurance to the contrary.
b. spec. To place (a document) in due manner among the records of a court or public office; esp. to file a bill (in Chancery), an information. Also, † to file up (obs.).
1511–2. Act 3 Hen. VIII., c. 23 § 3. The same Accomptes, and every of them, to be taken and filed up in the Pipe, there to remain of Record perpetually. Ibid., § 5. The Kinges said lettres missives annexed and fyled to the same Accomptes.
1529. More, Dyaloge, III. Wks. 213/1. He … therwith brought in those letters and filed them among the recordes of the court.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1211/4. If they do not forthwith File and Enter all such their Proceedings.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 305. When an information is filed, either thus, or by the attorney general ex officio, it must be tried by a petit jury of the county where the offence arises.
1776. Trial of Nundocomar, 80/1. Mr. Farrer produces an office copy of the executors accounts, delivered in by Pudmohun, filed the 1st of October, 1774.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), II. 20. He died, leaving two daughters, who married without the consent of their mother; and afterwards filed a bill in Chancery against the trustees of the term.
1853. Marsden, The History of the Early Puritans, 387. To complete the melancholy history which needs no further comment, the king himself sent for him, loaded him with kindness, cancelled the judgments filed against him, and translated him to the archbishopric of York.
1886. Williams, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), XX. 342/1. The difference between filing and registration is that the documents filed are filed without alteration, while only an epitome is usually registered.
fig. 1619. Middleton, Inner-Temple Masques, C i b. Thy faire desires in Vertue’s Court are fil’de.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., vii. 501.
| The witnesses are heard; the cause is o’er; | |
| Let Conscience file the sentence in her court. |
† 2. To arrange in consecutive order. Obs.
c. 1450. Bk. Curtasye, 435, in Babees Bk. (1868), 313. Gromes palettis shyn fyle and make litere.
c. 1470. Hardyng, Chron., VII. i. In balade thus it shall be made and fyled.
1607. Fletcher, Woman-hater, I. ii. I would have my several courses and my dishes well filed.
1676. Grew, Anat. Plants, i. § 4 (1682), 164. Nor is the Posture of the Parts in the Empalement less suitable: not being filed one just over another, but alternately.
† 3. To arrange (men, soldiers) in a file, or files.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, III. i. 44. The other halfe is to be brought vnto the traine of the pikes, and there filed in like maner.
1623. Bingham, Xenophon, 87. They stood a hundred deepe. The order and armes of the Mosynecans, like as the stage-dancers are wont, filing themselues one opposite to the other.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., III. xviii. 200. The King of Sweden never filed his men above six deep in one company, because he would not have them lie in useless clusters in his army, but so that every particular soldier might be drawn out into service.
1643. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., II § 1. Let us speak like Politicians, there is a Nobility without Heraldry, a natural dignity, whereby one man is ranked with another, another filed before him, according to the quality of his Desert, and preheminence of his good parts.
4. intr. To march or move in file. Also with away, etc. To file off, ‘to wheel off by files from moving in a spacious front, and march in length’ (Stocqueler, Mil. Encycl.).
1616. Bingham, Ælian’s Tactics, xix. 109 notes. The first [kind of Rhombe] both filed and ranked, this neither fileth, nor ranketh.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3914/5. Some of their Battalions filed up several steep and narrow Passages. Ibid. (1704), No. 4054/1. At night they filed and stood to the Northward. Ibid. (1708), No. 4475/3. The Enemy filed off … towards the Thickets.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, IX. iii. This fair creature entering the field of battle, immediately filed to that wing where his mistress maintained so unequal a fight with one of either sex.
1796–7. Instr. & Reg. Cavalry (1813), 89. The whole divisions then file from their reverse flanks, each by its own rear.
1808. Scott, Marm., I. xxxi.
| Till, filing from the gate, he past | |
| That noble train, their Lord the last. |
1813. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., XI. 101 note. The French troops shall file out to-morrow morning, by the gate of Mirador, with all honors of war.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872), I. 70. A whole party of Americans filed into his studio, and ranged themselves round his father’s statue.
1876. F. E. Trollope, Charming Fellow, I. iv. 48. The players file off in the wake of the host.
1883. E. E. Hale, Colonel Ingham’s Journey, in Harper’s Mag., LXVIII. Dec., 145/2 They filed [pr. filled] away for the south, and we sent our blessing with them.
† b. To march in line, keep pace with; in quot. fig. Obs.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 171.
| My endeauors | |
| Haue euer come too short of my Desires, | |
| Yet fill’d [mod. edd. filed] with my Abilities. |
1619. Fletcher, M. Thomas, I. ii.
| And fear’d too light too, | |
| To fyle with her Affections. |
c. U.S. To file upon: to march upon, occupy (vacant land).
1879. H. King, Picturesque Features of Kansas Farming, in Scribner’s Mag., XIX. Nov., 132/1. There are liberal intervals not yet ‘filed upon’ or ‘opened up,’ as they name it out here, and the farmers have a keen eye for convenient ‘ranges’ upon which their stock may graze.
5. trans. To cause or order (soldiers) to file off.
1831. Examiner, 338/1. When the soldiers had returned from this convoy, they were filed off in four divisions to receive billets for the night.
Hence Filing ppl. a.
1616. Bingham, Ælian’s Tactics, xix. 110 notes. The filing Rhombe began at the front point & reare-point & proceeded to the flanks.
