John Bagford, Collection of Ballads (1671)

file-shell (fil's hel), n. A bivalve mollusk of the family Pholadida, as Pholas dactylus, the piddock: so called from the roughne of the shell. filet (fē-lā'), n. [F., dim. of fil , a thread: see file3 , fillet .] In decorative art , a thin line forming part of a design or ornamenting an edge or the like; a fillet: as, a filet in gold in bookbinding; a filet of ruby luster on a majolica vase. See fillet . - Filet guipure. Same as darned lace . See lace . filial (fil'yal), a. [= [= F. filial = Pr. Sp. Pg. fil ial = It. filiale , filial is , of a son or daughter, filius , a son, fem. filia , a daughter; perhaps orig. (like E. son , q. v.) 'one born,' fe , * fev , bear, produce, in fetus , offspring, fecund us , fruitful, femina , woman, etc.: see fetus , fecund , female, etc.] 1. Pertaining to a son or daughter; becoming to or due from a child in relation to the parents. The Son from the Father had fatherly Love, and the Father from the Son a filial Obedience. Baker , Chronicles, p. 25. It were a sin against the piety Of filial duty, if I should forget The debt I owe my father. Beau , and Fl . , Laws of Candy, i. 2. With filial confidence inspired, Can lift to Heaven an unpresumptuous eye, And smiling say, "My Father made them all." Cowper , Task, v. 745. with files previous to the use of the emery- 2. Bearing the relation of a child. wheel or sandpaper. file-firing (fil'fir"ing), n. The discharge of small arms by files of soldiers firing in succe ion. file-fish (fil'fish), n. Any plectognathous fish of the family Balistida : so called from the roughly granular skin. The European species is Balis tes capriscus , a common inhabitant of the Mediterranean, and occasionally met with on the southern coasts of Eng land. It grows to the length of 2 feet. B. aculeatus , a native of the Indian and American seas, as well as of the Red Sea, is sometimes 12 or 14 inches long. Another is a Sprigs of like leaf erect their filial heads.