tile

noun

1. A regularly-shaped slab of clay or other material, affixed to cover or decorate a surface, as in a roof-tile, glazed tile, stove tile, carpet tile, etc.

   “Sepia Delft tiles surrounded the fireplace, their crudely drawn Biblical scenes in faded cyclamen blending with the pinkish pine, while above them, instead of a mantelshelf, there was an archway high enough to form a balcony with slender balusters and a tapestry-hung wall behind.”

2. A rectangular graphic.

   “Each tile within the map consists of 256 × 256 pixels.”

   “Sprites and tiles that are hidden in the prototype ROM file can be recovered.”

3. Any of various flat cuboid playing pieces used in certain games, such as dominoes, Scrabble, or mahjong.

   “One hot summer day in the Chinese city of Nan-ning, I wandered through a park of lotus leaves and exotic flowers to a pagoda where ancient women sat, drowsily, happily playing mahjongg amidst the scent of flowers, and that excellent sound of clicking tiles enchanted me; I was far from home, but that long slow summer afternoon with the mah-jongg sounds brought me back to my own continent and specifically to Mexicali, whose summer tranquillity never ends.”

4. (dated, informal)A stiff hat.

   “Tile - Tile, a Hat.”

   “1911, Charles Collins, Fred E. Terry and E.A. Sheppard, "Any Old Iron", British Music Hall song Dressed in style, brand-new tile, And your father's old green tie on.”

   “Thus, when old Doctor Meldrum, with his well-known curly-brimmed opera-hat, appeared upon the platform, there was such a universal query of "Where did you get that tile?" that he hurriedly removed it, and concealed it furtively under his chair.”

5. A Lego piece that is 1/3 the height of a brick, and is smooth without studs on top.

verb

1. (transitive)To cover with tiles.

   “The handyman tiled the kitchen.”

   “White marble tiled the bathroom.”

   “Some professionals begin tiling a wall by setting a full tile in the most visually prominent corner […]”

2. To arrange in a regular pattern, with adjoining edges (applied to tile-like objects, graphics, windows in a computer interface).
3. To optimize (a loop in program code) by means of the tiling technique.
4. To seal a lodge against intrusions from unauthorised people.
5. To protect from the intrusion of the uninitiated.

   “to tile a Masonic lodge”

   “tile the door”