dogpile

American  

[dawg-pahyl, dog] / ˈdɔgˌpaɪl, ˈdɒg /

Or dog-pile

noun

1. a number of people throwing themselves on top of one another, as in a brawl or a celebration of victory.

   Frank hauls in the pass just after crossing the goal line, ending up under a dogpile of his teammates in the end zone.

2. a flurry of critical or negative comments about someone or something by a large number of people.

   Take a perfectly reputable person, find a weakness, convince others to join the dogpile against them, and pretty soon you destroy them.

3. any large, rapid, or disorderly accumulation.

   There’s no way anybody can stay abreast of the dogpile of updates the average user receives daily.

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verb (used with or without object)

1. to join or form a jumble of people throwing themselves on top of (someone), as in a brawl or a celebration of victory.

   Several of the club’s bouncers dogpiled on my hapless brother.

   Players dogpiled the young hero after his last-minute winning goal.

2. to join with others in a flurry of critical or negative comments about (someone or something).

   It’s my first post here, so don't dogpile me!

   Not to dogpile on you, kiddo, but I agree—you were the one who started it all with the sarcasm.

3. to load (someone or something) to the limit.

   When programming, don’t try to dogpile too many operations into one component of the application.

   Political attention will sometimes dogpile onto a single issue.

Etymology

Origin of dogpile

First recorded in 1910–15; dog ( def. ) + pile ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

Why –even as the Court is taking on fewer cases – is there an absolute dogpile of decisions, with no map for what will come down or when, beyond a SCOTUS-adjacent cottage industry in soothsaying and advance-panic and guessing?

From Slate

The Beckman dogpile after winning the Division 3 title.

From Los Angeles Times

For some reason, he felt he had to talk about the battle of Gettysburg, with the usual adjective dogpile he uses to distract people from the fact that he has no idea what he's talking about, and probably couldn't tell you who won.

From Salon

“Very disappointed you jumped on the ‘let’s make fun of Kate’ dogpile,” another user commented on Lively’s post.

From Los Angeles Times

The abolition of big money in politics has been a clarion call for elected Democrats for a long time; if anything, the dogpile on Porter is indicative of the sad fact that getting money out of politics has lost its priority status for Democrats—especially in the vaunted effort to defend democracy.

From Slate