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.
Despite predictions she’d pile up the bucks, Talarico raised three times as much in his first weeks of declared candidacy as Crockett did in her equivalent launch period.
He admits the business isn't profitable yet, and the bills are piling up.
From Barron's
At a traditional market in the city's south, Nurhasanah said the garbage piling up by her coffee and snacks stand was bad for business.
From Barron's
They tried to urge him on as the mistakes piled up.
From Los Angeles Times
His woes have been piling up for weeks.
From Barron's
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.
