pile up

verb

1. to gather or be gathered in a pile; accumulate

2. informal,  to crash or cause to crash

noun

1. informal,  a multiple collision of vehicles

Idioms and Phrases

Accumulate, as in The leaves piled up in the yard , or He piled up a huge fortune . In this idiom pile means “form a heap or mass of something.” [Mid-1800s]

Be involved in a crash, as in When the police arrived, at least four cars had piled up . [Late 1800s]

Related Words

• batter 
• decimate 
• demolish 
• destroy 
• devastate 
• impair 
• injure 
• mangle 
• mar 
• ravage 
• raze 
• ruin 
• sabotage 
• shatter 
• sink 
• smash 
• spoil 
• torpedo 
• trash 
• undermine