dogpile

English

Etymology

From dog +‎ pile, from analogy with a group of dogs sleeping in a pile.

Noun

dogpile (plural dogpiles)

  1. A mound of people, especially people who are fighting or celebrating.
    • 1977, Billy Knott and James Tate, Lucky Darryl‎, →ISBN, page 7:
      The crowd lept into a wrestling dogpile, each trying to grab as many of the black slips as possible.
  2. Any indiscriminate jumble of things.
    • 1993, Christopher G. Jones, “Object-Oriented Analysis with CASE”, in Computer-aided Software Engineering‎, →ISBN, page 348:
      Unscrambling the dogpile of objects can be messy.

Verb

dogpile (third-person singular simple present dogpiles, present participle dogpiling, simple past and past participle dogpiled)

  1. To jump on top of someone, usually in a group.
    • 2003, Nancy Holder, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen‎, →ISBN, page 657:
      A vampire got her around the neck from behind; then more, dogpiling her.
  2. To pile on or overwhelm, such as with criticism or praise.
    • 2005, Craig Spector, Underground‎, →ISBN, page 169:
      But this guy was serious, using online payment services and dogpiling her e-mail box within minutes, requesting expedited shipping.
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