pileup

or pile-up

[ pahyl-uhp ]
See synonyms for pileup on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a massive collision of several or many moving vehicles.

  2. an accumulation, as of work, chores, or bills.

  1. a rough or disorderly falling of people upon one another, as in a football game.

Origin of pileup

1
First recorded in 1825–35; noun use of verb phrase pile up

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use pileup in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for pile up

pile up

verb(adverb)
  1. to gather or be gathered in a pile; accumulate

  2. informal to crash or cause to crash

nounpile-up
  1. informal a multiple collision of vehicles

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with pileup

pileup

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]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.