dogpile

or dog-pile

[ dawg-pahyl, dog ]

noun
  1. a number of people throwing themselves on top of one another, as in a brawl or a celebration of victory: Frank hauls in the pass just after crossing the goal line, ending up under a dogpile of his teammates in the end zone.

  2. a flurry of critical or negative comments about someone or something by a large number of people: Take a perfectly reputable person, find a weakness, convince others to join the dogpile against them, and pretty soon you destroy them.

  1. any large, rapid, or disorderly accumulation: There’s no way anybody can stay abreast of the dogpile of updates the average user receives daily.

verb (used with or without object)
  1. to join or form a jumble of people throwing themselves on top of (someone), as in a brawl or a celebration of victory: Several of the club’s bouncers dogpiled on my hapless brother.Players dogpiled the young hero after his last-minute winning goal.

  2. to join with others in a flurry of critical or negative comments about (someone or something): It’s my first post here, so don't dogpile me!Not to dogpile on you, kiddo, but I agree—you were the one who started it all with the sarcasm.

  1. to load (someone or something) to the limit:When programming, don’t try to dogpile too many operations into one component of the application.Political attention will sometimes dogpile onto a single issue.

Origin of dogpile

1
First recorded in 1910–15; dog + pile1

Words Nearby dogpile

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024