pile up

present singular third person piles up · participle present piling up · participle past piled up · past piled up

1. transitiveTo form a pile, stack, or heap.

   The kids piled up their boots and coats by the back door.

   3 more examples

   And still the hours passed, and at last I knew by the glimmer of light in the tomb above that the sun had risen again, and a maddening thirst had hold of me. And then I thought of all the barrels piled up in the vault and of the liquor that they held; and stuck not because 'twas spirit, for I would scarce have paused to sate that thirst even with molten lead.

   [1898], J[ohn] Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, London; Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934, →OCLC

   In the Norwegian district of Tellemarken a cairn is piled up wherever anything fearful has happened, and every passer-by must throw another stone on it, or some evil will befall him.

   1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 9, page 14

   If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.

   1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 2, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN

   Synonyms: accumulate, agglomerate, amass, build up, cumulate, heap, heap up, mound

2. idiomaticintransitiveTo collect or accumulate, as a backlog.

   The requests piled up while she was away.

   2 more examples

   The locomotive was the now inevitable American 2-8-0, No. 2623. There she stood, effectively blocking the level crossing, simmering gently, massively inert. It was almost dark, and one's final sight was of her high, firelit cab, the enginemen nonchalantly leaning out, waiting for the right-away, while impatient road convoys piled up on both sides of the crossing.

   1945 January and February, “Notes and News: American Locomotives in France”, in Railway Magazine, page 46

   There are the engines that develop ill-health and begin to lose time, or the wagons that develop hot boxes and have to be removed, initiating delays that steadily pile up—or at worst, the weather lays its hand on the whole District.

   1962 August, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 131/132

   Synonyms: head up

3. intransitiveTo sustain a motor vehicle accident; to crash.

   Seven cars piled up in a concertina smash on the Pacific Highway this morning about four miles on the Brisbane side of Southport.

   1953 July 13, The Northern Star, Lismore, page 4, column 3

   1 more example

   Nevertheless, if there were no urgent reason for it, I did not fancy driving anything, much less a large, heavily loaded truck, by night along roads which might reasonably be expected to produce a number of hazards. If I were to pile it up, and the odds were that I should, I would lose a lot more time in finding another and transferring the load than I would by spending the night here.

   1951, John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, published 1954, page 157