2
general::
pile (sth) up
FORM A PILE
1. [ M ] to form a pile, or to put a lot of things into a pile , pile (sth) up
INCREASE
2. (of something bad) to increase
• Unpaid bills began to pile up alarmingly.
• They piled up such a huge debt that they soon went bankrupt.
Cambridge-Phrasal Verbs
3
general::
pile
a group of things of the same type that are put on top of each other:
• a huge pile of cardboard boxes
stack
a neat pile of things of the same type:
• There were stacks of books on the floor.
heap
a large messy pile of things:
• All his clothes were in a heap on the floor.
mound
a pile of something with a round shape:
• a small mound of rice on the plate
mountain
a very large pile of something with a round shape:
• a mountain of dirty laundry waiting to be washed
Longman-Thesaurus
5
general::
verb ADV. neatly | up We piled the boxes up neatly. PREP. against We piled sandbags against the door. | on, onto She piled food onto our plates. | on top of They piled stones on top of the mound. | with a table piled high with magazines PHRASES piled high, noun ADJ. big, great, high, huge, large, massive, vast | thick | little, small, tiny | neat, tidy | untidy VERB + PILE place sth in/into/on, put sth in/into/on I put the letter in the envelope and placed it on the pile. I've put the books into three separate piles. | dump He dumped a pile of dirty clothes onto the floor. | add sth to Just add that application to the pile. | flick through, leaf through, look through, riffle through, shuffle through, sort through I leafed through the pile of documents until I found the one I wanted. PREP. amid a/the ~ The money lay amid a pile of unopened letters. | behind a/the ~ He was busy behind a pile of papers on his desk. | beneath/under a/the ~ I pulled my diary from beneath a pile of files. | in a/the ~ The washing is in a pile on the floor. | on a/the ~ She closed the magazine and threw it back on the pile. | ~ of a pile of books I've got piles of work to do. PHRASES be reduced to a pile of sth The house was reduced to a pile of rubble. | the bottom/top of the pile (figurative) The government is doing little to help those on the bottom of the social pile. | sort sth into piles I sorted the clothes into two piles.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary