Il lui a filé une de ces piles à la fin du round

n. f.

1. Thrashing.

  a (lit.): 'Pasting', walloping. Il lui a filé une de ces piles à la fin du round: He knocked the living daylights out of him right on the bell.

  b (fig.): En '45 les Chleus ont pris la pile des piles! Just before the end of the war we knocked the stuffing out of Jerry!

2. Unit of 100 francs in pre-1958 currency. Cinq piles, c'est vraiment pas cher pour toutes ces cibiches! I'd say you're getting these fags at a reasonable price! (Like the English 'pony', pile belongs to the grey language area shadowing the underworld. The word would have no meaning to the middle classes of the 40s and 50s.)

1. Precisely, exactly. Je dois commencer a huit heures pile: I've got to start at eight on the dot. Ça fait pile ce que je te dois! Here's what I owe you, now we're quits!

2. Ça tombe pile: It couldn't have happened at a better time! Vous arrivez pile! Am I glad you're here!

3. S'arrêter pile: To 'stop dead', to come to an abrupt halt. (There would appear to be a link between the adverbial pile and the wrist-smacking flip-over involved in the tossing of a coin.)