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pile up

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pile something up

 

1. to crash or wreck something. Drive carefully if you don't want to pile the car up. The driver piled up the car against a tree.

2. to make something into a heap. Carl piled all the leaves up and set them afire. Please pile up the leaves.

See also: pile, up

pile up

 

1. Lit. [for things] to gather or accumulate. The newspapers began to pile up after a few days. Work is really piling up around here.

2. Fig. [for a number of vehicles] to crash together. Nearly twenty cars piled up on the bridge this morning.

See also: pile, up

pile up something

also pile something up

to increase something Many civilians were killed - the evidence continues to pile up. The company piled up hundreds of millions of dollars of losses over the last year.

Usage notes: usually used in passive forms: Earnings began piling up from the sale of the new switches.

See also: pile, up

pile up

1. 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]

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

See also: pile, up

pile up

v.

1. To arrange something into a pile: We piled up the firewood in the garage. I piled the dirty dishes up in the sink.

2. To accumulate: My bills piled up while I was in the hospital.

3. To cause something to accumulate: The company is piling up debt with its risky investments. The team piled 40 points up in the first half of the game.

4. To crash into each other; collide. Used especially of vehicles: Because of the thick fog, dozens of cars piled up on the freeway.

See also: pile, up