we got us a pile

among the supplements to the sunday papers (wondrous things), we sometimes find a "house" or "home" magazine which talks about buying and interior designing, and never describes houses costing less then a million dollars! pounds. in these periodicals, i have many a time seen a manorial house described as a "Victorian pile" or a "Georgian pile". this was new to me, as i think of "pile" as various heaped things.

approaching the OED to attain wisdom, i got more than i bargained for. apparently, pile can mean, among other things:

1. A grain, awn, or husk of barley, corn, etc. Also fig. (Sc. and Eng. regional.)
   
2. A stake or post fixed in the ground, used as a target when practising sword-strokes. Obs. rare.
   
3. A pointed stake or post; spec. one of a number of heavy wooden or metal posts or beams, pointed or sharpened at the lower end and driven vertically into a river-bed, the sea, or marshy ground to support the foundations of a superstructure such as a house, a bridge, a pier, etc.
   
4. The reverse side of a coin. Freq. in cross and (or) pile: ‘heads and (or) tails’,
   
5. A stronghold, a castle, esp. a small castle or tower; = PEEL n.2 3. Also fig. Now arch. and rare.
   
6. A set of weights fitting one upon another so as to form a solid cone, pyramid, or other figure, prob. used esp. for gold and silver; such a set of weights conforming to a standard. Also: the balance or weighing device making use of these weights.
   
7. A heap of wood or similar material on which a corpse, sacrifice, etc., is burnt; a pyre.
   
8. Any large group or collection of things (without reference to height). Now colloq.: (in sing. and pl.) a large quantity, amount, or number.
9. A large amount money; a fortune. (orig. U.S.)
   
10.  More fully pile claim. A rich mining claim. Now hist. and rare. (Austral. and N.Z.)
    
11. A large building or edifice, esp. a stately home.
    
12. A nuclear reactor, esp. one of the original (or similar) design, having as the moderator a pile of graphite blocks in which the fuel was embedded. Now hist.
    
13. A pillar, a pier, esp. each of the piers of a bridge.
    
14. Hair, esp. fine soft hair or down; spec. the fine short underfur of certain mammals, now esp. the Old English sheepdog; the wool of sheep
    
15. Red or yellowish plumage markings on white or pale-coloured fowls.
    
16. The raised surface or nap on a fabric (such as velvet, plush, etc., or esp. a carpet) formed by weaving a secondary warp in loops which are either cut or left intact; the nap on cloth.
    

it appears that we did buy a pile -- and while i really like definition number 5, and we do have the necessary moat and ferocious guard ducks, i'd have to say that what we really got with our purchase was number 8, in the shape of a large heap of rubble, rubbing the eyes sore at the bottom of the garden. somebody seemed to have thought that they could extend it indefinitely by piling rubble down the river bank. so far, we have unearthed enough bricks, concrete slabs and bits of broken shower to create three steps of stairs and a garden path. i'll let you know if a sacrifice shows up as well.