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.
Pile up the 23 grand slam singles titles, more than anyone else has won in the Open era, and her 16 grand slam doubles titles, too.
From The Guardian • Jul. 1, 2020
Pile up enough spectacular failures on top of each other, enough failed water projects and failed pictures and failed churches, and you might have something as great as Southern California.
From Washington Post • May 18, 2018
Pile up enough rocks around the railroad trestles and eventually you get the jetties we have today.
From Washington Times • Oct. 17, 2015
Pile up 10 and it's a structure that looms impressively.
From The Guardian • Jun. 14, 2014
Pile up a waste-basket, or something that is handy to keep it out of view.
From Traffic in Souls A Novel of Crime and Its Cure by Ball, Eustace Hale
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.
