Definition of "build"

build

/bɪld/

verb
third-person singular simple present builds, present participle building, simple past and past participle built or (archaic or poetic) builded
1. (transitive) To form (something) by combining materials or parts.
  Quotations
  It was a bridge ybuilt in goodly wize, / With curious Corbes and pendants grauen faire, [...]
  1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, stanza 6, page 140
  Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.
  1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], page 16
  A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. (transitive) To develop or give form to (something) according to a plan or process.
  Quotations
  The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you [...] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
  2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27
3. (transitive) To increase or strengthen (something) by adding gradually to.
  Quotations
  Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
  2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
4. (transitive) To establish a basis for (something).
5. (intransitive) To form by combining materials or parts.
6. (intransitive) To develop in magnitude or extent.
7. (transitive, computing) To construct (software) by compiling its source code.
8. (intransitive, computing, of source code) To be converted into software by compilation, usually with minimal human intervention.
noun
countable and uncountable, plural builds
1. (countable, uncountable) The physique of a human or animal body, or other object; constitution or structure.
2. (computing, countable) Any of various versions of a software product as it is being developed for release to users.
3. (gaming, slang, countable) A structure, such as a building, statue, pool or forest, or a configuration of a character's items or skills, created by the player.
  Quotations
  In fact, thousands of D&D players constantly debate the virtues of various character builds (combinations of race, class, feat, and spell choices) and share their efforts with each other in hundreds of message boards and mailing lists.
  2005, Bill Slavicsek, Richard Baker, Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies, page 279