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dogpile

or dog-pile

[ dawg-pahyl, dog ]

noun

  1. a number of people throwing themselves on top of one another, as in a brawl or a celebration of victory:

    Frank hauls in the pass just after crossing the goal line, ending up under a dogpile of his teammates in the end zone.

  2. a flurry of critical or negative comments about someone or something by a large number of people:

    Take a perfectly reputable person, find a weakness, convince others to join the dogpile against them, and pretty soon you destroy them.

  3. any large, rapid, or disorderly accumulation:

    There’s no way anybody can stay abreast of the dogpile of updates the average user receives daily.



verb (used with or without object)

  1. to join or form a jumble of people throwing themselves on top of (someone), as in a brawl or a celebration of victory:

    Several of the club’s bouncers dogpiled on my hapless brother.

    Players dogpiled the young hero after his last-minute winning goal.

  2. to join with others in a flurry of critical or negative comments about (someone or something):

    It’s my first post here, so don't dogpile me!

    Not to dogpile on you, kiddo, but I agree—you were the one who started it all with the sarcasm.

  3. to load (someone or something) to the limit:

    When programming, don’t try to dogpile too many operations into one component of the application.

    Political attention will sometimes dogpile onto a single issue.

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Word History and Origins

Origin of dogpile1

First recorded in 1910–15; dog ( def ) + pile 1( def )

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