pile up

pile up idiom
  1. 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]
  2. Be involved in a crash, as in When the police arrived, at least four cars had piled up. [Late 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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