pile

{{Roman}}I.{{/Roman}}

noun

ADJECTIVE

▪ big, enormous, great, huge, large, massive

▪ little, small

▪ neat, tidy (esp. BrE)

▪ untidy (esp. BrE)

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 (esp. BrE), flip through (esp. AmE), look through, shuffle through, sort through

▪

I sorted through the pile of documents until I found it.

PREPOSITION

▪ amid a/the pile

▪

The money lay amid a pile of unopened letters.

▪ behind a/the pile

▪

He was busy behind a pile of papers on his desk.

▪ beneath a/the pile, under a/the pile

▪

I pulled my diary from beneath a pile of files.

▪ in a/the pile

▪

The clothes were in a pile on the floor.

▪ on a/the pile

▪

She closed the magazine and threw it back on the pile.

▪ pile of

▪

a pile of books

▪

I had piles of work to do.

PHRASES

▪ be reduced to a pile of sth

▪

The house was reduced to a pile of rubble.

▪ the bottom of the pile, the top of the pile

▪

I grabbed a shirt from the top of the pile.

▪

At the bottom of the pile were the prostitutes and drug dealers. (figurative)

▪ sort sth into piles

▪

I sorted the clothes into two piles.

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verb

ADVERB

▪ neatly

▪ haphazardly

▪ up

▪

We piled the boxes up neatly.

PREPOSITION

▪ 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

Pile is used with these nouns as the subject: ↑snow

Pile is used with these nouns as the object: ↑crate, ↑trolley