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]

Example Sentences

Senior lawyer Syed Farman Naqvi says courts often issue interim or temporary orders in urgent cases - but once the immediate need is met, the matter lingers as new cases pile up.

From BBC

It might not sound like much time, but when a warehouse full of computers is whirring away these microscopic delays pile up and dilute the performance needed for AI.

From BBC

Like so much of school food policy, the solution has been piecemeal: some protections here, none there and the debt continuing to pile up in the background.

From Salon

“I noticed it when I first moved in, the trash piling up, but a couple of weeks ago when I walked by the street, I was pretty shocked,” Watson said.

From Los Angeles Times

The variables pile up and questions keep coming.

From BBC

Related Words

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