Chapter Figuline to File of F by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

to inspection by whomsoever it may concern.

Burrill.

File
(File), v. i. [Cf. F. filer.] (Mil.) To march in a file or line, as soldiers, not abreast, but one after another; — generally with off.

To file with, to follow closely, as one soldier after another in file; to keep pace.

My endeavors
Have ever come too short of my desires,
Yet filed with my abilities.

Shak.

File
(File) n. [AS. feól; akin to D. viji, OHG. fila, fihala, G. feile, Sw. fil, Dan. fiil, cf. Icel. þel, Russ. pila, and Skr. piç to cut out, adorn; perh. akin to E. paint.]

1. A steel instrument, having cutting ridges or teeth, made by indentation with a chisel, used for abrading or smoothing other substances, as metals, wood, etc.

A file differs from a rasp in having the furrows made by straight cuts of a chisel, either single or crossed, while the rasp has coarse, single teeth, raised by the pyramidal end of a triangular punch.

2. Anything employed to smooth, polish, or rasp, literally or figuratively.

Mock the nice touches of the critic's file.

Akenside.

3. A shrewd or artful person. [Slang] Fielding.

Will is an old file in spite of his smooth face.

Thackeray.

Bastard file, Cross file, etc. See under Bastard, Cross, etc. — Cross-cut file, a file having two sets of teeth crossing obliquely. — File blank, a steel blank shaped and ground ready for cutting to form a file. — File cutter, a maker of files. — Second-cut file, a file having teeth of a grade next finer than bastard. — Single-cut file, a file having only one set of parallel teeth; a float. — Smooth file, a file having teeth so fine as to make an almost smooth surface.

File
(File), v. t.

1. To rub, smooth, or cut away, with a file; to sharpen with a file; as, to file a saw or a tooth.

2. To smooth or polish as with a file. Shak.

File your tongue to a little more courtesy.

Sir W. Scott.

File
(File), v. t. [OE. fulen, filen, foulen, AS. flan, fr. fl foul. See Foul, and cf. Defile, v. t.] To make foul; to defile. [Obs.]

All his hairy breast with blood was filed.

Spenser.

For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind.

Shak.