file away

[yuheci]

Please could you teach me the meaning of File away in the following context:

"Every physician, in the course of practicing clinical medicine, become a collector of bizarre observations, cases that do not fit the norm, that he or she files away secretly over the years."

Thank you for your time and help.

Yu Heci

[bhaisahab]

Please could you teach me the meaning of File away in the following context:

"Every physician, in the course of practicing clinical medicine, become a collector of bizarre observations, cases that do not fit the norm, that he or she files away secretly over the years."

Thank you for your time and help.

Yu Heci

Keeps records of, either written or mental.

[Mr. Spivey]

It's figurative usage. Think of a filing cabinet (pictured below). Just as a secretary may file various clients' information into separate hanging folders, the physician mentally categorizes her experiences for easy reference in the future.

[BobK]

Additional info: This sort of file was used widely in computing - even before graphical user interfaces (with 'folders' and 'filing cabinets'). Way back in the days of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP/M ('Control Program for Microcomputers' - which I used to use in the early '80s) when you created a document you opened a file.

b