pile up
Britishverb
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to gather or be gathered in a pile; accumulate
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informal to crash or cause to crash
noun
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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]
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Be involved in a crash, as in When the police arrived, at least four cars had piled up . [Late 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Recruiting almost exclusively among the huge and jacked — it’s easier to appear larger-than-life on camera if you’re real-world large — makes the list of heart conditions start to pile up.
From Salon ● Oct. 2, 2026
West Indies dominated India's bowlers to pile up their highest ever total in one-day internationals.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
As the losses pile up, urgency is giving way to exasperation for a team with an especially challenging schedule of upcoming opponents: at Seattle, Denver, at Kansas City, at Rams, Houston, at Baltimore.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
Green arrows representing tourist-laden jets pile up on the screens of the Athens air traffic controllers, a puzzle to solve at the height of tourist season.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
Is that why they pile up like that?
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
