Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

File \File\, n. [AS. fe['o]l; akin to D. viji, OHG. f[=i]la,
   f[=i]hala, G. feile, Sw. fil, Dan. fiil, cf. Icel. ??l, Russ.
   pila, and Skr. pi? 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.

   Note: 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.