pig pile

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English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Originally as a verb, by analogy with the disorderly huddling behavior of pigs.

Pronunciation

Verb

pig pile (third-person singular simple present pig piles, present participle pig piling, simple past and past participle pig piled)

  1. (US colloquial, transitive) To cause a group of people to lie in a pile upon another, originally as a punishment to the victim on the bottom.
    • 1873 June, Ballou's Monthly Magazine, page 595:
      She made the worst speller lie down on the floor, the next worst on top of him, and so pig-piled the whole class, dressing off the upper one with a shingle.
  2. (US colloquial, transitive, intransitive) To jump into such a pile.
    • 1989 June 23, The Seattle Times, page 8:
      They pig-piled at the very end, and we threw ice cubes on them.
  3. (figurative, US colloquial, transitive, intransitive) To act similarly with regard to residential density: to live or cause to live in high-density settlements.
    • 1957 December 11, The Chronicle‎, Telegram, archived from the original on 24 July 2018, page 32:
      We're pig-piling in hot spots. If the entire population were to be given an acre of ground... they wouldn't occupy the state of Texas.
    • 1969 August 21, House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, Field Hearings on H.R. 10482 before the Subcommittee on Parks and Recreation, p. 70:
      We feel that this is... an area that can give enjoyment to thousands of people without pig-piling them and without causing major ecological disturbances.

Synonyms

Noun

pig pile (plural pig piles)

  1. (US, colloquial) A disorderly pile of people formed by jumping upon a victim.
    • 1880 August, Arthur's Home Magazine, page 462:
      Rolling in a mud-puddle, heels up in the air, amid a mound of humanity, very pertinently called a 'pig-pile'.

Synonyms

References

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