Generally a screen or embankment to protect the rear of a position from enemy attack, from bomb splinters from behind, from enemy fire from a commanding height, or fire from flanking positions. In common English usage since World War II, the term "parados", particularly in trench warfare, has largely been discarded in favour of "rear parapet", which, etymologically speaking, is a contradiction in terms. In some contexts the term "rear traverse" is preferred, but no usage is exclusive.
In trench warfare parados referred to a bank of earth or similar material behind the rear of the trench, opposite the parapet, affording protection from explosions and fragments when shells or bombs overshot the trench.
In fortifications that were enfiladed by enemy in positions commanding the fort, an internal parados could defilade the enemy, serving as physical protection and blindage. Usages of the term have varied inconsistently according to times and sources. Some sources use parados as a synonym for a traverse; some other sources represent parados as a special class of traverse and not necessarily at the back of any particular position.
A large stake, or piece of pointed timber, steel etc., driven into the earth or sea-bed for the support of a building, a pier, or other superstructure, or to form a cofferdam, etc.
A large building, or mass of buildings.
One of the ordinaries or subordinaries having the form of a wedge, usually placed palewise, with the broadest end uppermost.
The head of an arrow or spear.
A list or league
A mass formed in layers.
A large amount of money.
A bundle of pieces of wrought iron to be worked over into bars or other shapes by rolling or hammering at a welding heat; a fagot.
A beam, pole, or pillar, driven completely into the ground.
A mass of things heaped together; a heap.
Hair, especially when very fine or short; the fine underfur of certain animals. (Formerly countable, now treated as a collective singular.)
An atomic pile; an early form of nuclear reactor.
A vertical series of alternate disks of two dissimilar metals (especially copper and zinc), laid up with disks of cloth or paper moistened with acid water between them, for producing a current of electricity; a voltaic pile, or galvanic pile.
The raised hairs, loops or strands of a fabric; the nap of a cloth.
A hemorrhoid.
A funeral pile; a pyre.
A group or list of related items up for consideration, especially in some kind of selection process.
To add something to a great number.
(of vehicles) To create a hold-up.
To place (guns, muskets, etc.) together in threes so that they can stand upright, supporting each other.
To drive piles into; to fill with piles; to strengthen with piles.
To give a pile to; to make shaggy.
To lay or throw into a pile or heap; to heap up; to collect into a mass; to accumulate
To cover with heaps; or in great abundance; to fill or overfill; to load.