pile up

pile ¹  (pl)

n.

1. A quantity of objects stacked or thrown together in a heap. See Synonyms at heap.

2. Informal A large accumulation or quantity: a pile of trouble.

3. Slang A large sum of money; a fortune: made their pile in the commodities market.

4. A funeral pyre.

5. A very large building or complex of buildings.

6. A nuclear reactor.

7. A voltaic pile.

v. piled, pil·ing, piles

v.tr.

1.

a. To place or lay in or as if in a pile or heap: piled books onto the table.

b. To load (something) with a heap or pile: piled the table with books.

2. To heap (something) in abundance: piled potato salad onto the plate.

v.intr.

1. To form a heap or pile.

2. To move in, out, or forward in a disorderly mass or group: pile into a bus; pile out of a car.

Phrasal Verb:

pile up

1. To accumulate.

2. Informal To undergo a serious vehicular collision.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pla, pillar.]

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pile ²  (pl)

n.

1. A heavy beam of timber, concrete, or steel, driven into the earth as a foundation or support for a structure.

2. Heraldry A wedge-shaped charge pointing downward.

3. A Roman javelin.

tr.v. piled, pil·ing, piles

1. To drive piles into.

2. To support with piles.

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[Middle English, from Old English pl, shaft, stake, from Latin plum, spear, pestle.]

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pile ³  (pl)

n.

1.

a. Cut or uncut loops of yarn forming the surface of certain fabrics, such as velvet, plush, and carpeting.

b. The surface so formed.

2. Soft fine hair, fur, or wool.

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[From Middle English piles, hair, plumage, probably from Middle Dutch pijl, fine hair, and Middle Low German pile, downy plumage, both from Latin pilus, hair.]

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piled adj.

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pile up

vb (adverb)

1. to gather or be gathered in a pile; accumulate

2. Informal to crash or cause to crash

n pile-up

Informal a multiple collision of vehicles

Thesaurus

Verb	1.	pile up - collect or gather; "Journals are accumulating in my office"; "The work keeps piling up" amass, conglomerate, cumulate, accumulate, gather increase - become bigger or greater in amount; "The amount of work increased" backlog - accumulate and create a backlog accrete - grow or become attached by accretion; "The story accreted emotion" drift - be piled up in banks or heaps by the force of wind or a current; "snow drifting several feet high"; "sand drifting like snow"
	2.	pile up - arrange into piles or stacks; "She piled up her books in my living room" heap up, stack up gather, pull together, collect, garner - assemble or get together; "gather some stones"; "pull your thoughts together"
	3.	pile up - get or gather together; "I am accumulating evidence for the man's unfaithfulness to his wife"; "She is amassing a lot of data for her thesis"; "She rolled up a small fortune" collect, compile, accumulate, amass, hoard, roll up run up - pile up (debts or scores) corral - collect or gather; "corralling votes for an election" collect, pull in - get or bring together; "accumulate evidence" scrape up, scrape, scratch, come up - gather (money or other resources) together over time; "She had scraped together enough money for college"; "they scratched a meager living" chunk, lump - put together indiscriminately; "lump together all the applicants" bale - make into a bale; "bale hay" catch - take in and retain; "We have a big barrel to catch the rainwater" fund - accumulate a fund for the discharge of a recurrent liability; "fund a medical care plan" fund - place or store up in a fund for accumulation salt away, stack away, stash away, store, hive away, lay in, put in - keep or lay aside for future use; "store grain for the winter"; "The bear stores fat for the period of hibernation when he doesn't eat"

Translations

? pile up

vi

(lit, fig) → sich (an)sammeln or anhäufen; (traffic) → sich stauen; (snow, work) → sich (auf)türmen or anhäufen; (reasons) → sich häufen; (evidence) → sich verdichten; (points) → sich ansammeln; he let the work pile up → die Arbeit türmte sich auf

(= crash) → aufeinander auffahren

vt sep

(= stack up) → (auf)stapeln; money → horten; (fig) debts → anhäufen; evidence → sammeln; her hair was piled up on top of her head → sie trug ihre Haare hoch aufgetürmt; to pile the fire up (with logs/coal) → (Holz/Kohle) nachlegen; he’s piling up trouble for himself → er handelt sich (dat) → Ärger ein

(inf, = crash) car → kaputt fahren