(files, filing, filed)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
A file is a box or a folded piece of heavy paper or plastic in which letters or documents are kept.
He sat behind a table on which were half a dozen files.
...a file of insurance papers.
N-COUNT
2.
A file is a collection of information about a particular person or thing.
We already have files on people's tax details, mortgages and poll tax...
You must record and keep a file of all expenses.
N-COUNT: oft N of/on n
3.
If you file a document, you put it in the correct file.
They are all filed alphabetically under author.
VERB: V n
4.
In computing, a file is a set of related data that has its own name.
N-COUNT
5.
If you file a formal or legal accusation, complaint, or request, you make it officially.
A number of them have filed formal complaints against the police...
I filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery a few months later.
VERB: V n, V for n
6.
When someone files a report or a news story, they send or give it to their employer.
Catherine Bond filed that report for the BBC from Nairobi...
VERB: V n
7.
When a group of people files somewhere, they walk one behind the other in a line.
Slowly, people filed into the room and sat down.
VERB: V prep/adv
8.
A file is a hand tool which is used for rubbing hard objects to make them smooth, shape them, or cut through them.
N-COUNT
9.
If you file an object, you smooth it, shape it, or cut it with a file.
Manicurists are skilled at shaping and filing nails.
VERB: V n
10.
11.
Something that is on file or on someone's files is recorded or kept in a file or in a collection of information.
His fingerprints were on file in Washington...
We'll keep your details on file...
It is one of the most desperate cases on her files.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, PHR after v
12.
A group of people who are walking or standing in single file are in a line, one behind the other.
We were walking in single file to the lake.
PHRASE: PHR after v