How to Use pile on in a Sentence

pile on

verb
  • Bags of onions were found piled on the floor of a dry storage area.
    — Camila Pedrosa, Sacbee.com, 17 Apr. 2026
  • But Senegal hasn't been able to pile on the goals.
    — Marlene Lenthang, NBC news, 27 June 2026
  • This chart shows the new debt the companies have piled on.
    — Jim Edwards, Fortune, 2 June 2026
  • This piles on top of food inflation.
    — Ignacio Calderon, USA Today, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Nothing was piled on top of it, nor was the car left outside to rot.
    — Jesus R. Garcia, Houston Chronicle, 5 Apr. 2026
  • The months and anxieties piled on.
    — Erin Entrada Kelly, PEOPLE, 11 May 2026
  • Viewers were quick to pile on with their own reactions.
    — Ashley Vega, PEOPLE, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Looking awake on no sleep isn’t about piling on products.
    — Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, Miami Herald, 15 Apr. 2026
  • His attacks signaled to other groypers to pile on.
    — Donie O'Sullivan, CNN Money, 6 June 2026
  • The comment section on the resurfaced clip is piling on.
    — Samantha Agate, Miami Herald, 21 Apr. 2026
  • None of the usual things that allow Wemby to pile on the pain are working right now.
    — Jared Weiss, New York Times, 23 May 2026
  • Social media wasted no time piling on.
    — Alejandro Avila Outkick, FOXNews.com, 15 June 2026
  • After that message was delivered, the Braves piled on.
    — Miami Herald, 22 May 2026
  • Never cut big roots or pile on topsoil—opt for groundcovers or call a pro if roots threaten structures.
    — Mary Marlowe Leverette, Southern Living, 24 June 2026
  • This returning menu item piles on a quarter pound of meat that’s been cooked low and slow for the best flavor possible.
    — Molly Burford, Southern Living, 20 Apr. 2026
  • The whole family piled on the couch for some quality time together.
    — Brendan Le, PEOPLE, 9 May 2026
  • Sometimes, stereo equipment goes unnoticed as merchandise gets piled on top, so keep your eyes peeled for a true gem.
    — Jennifer Prince, Southern Living, 5 June 2026
  • The Giants were aggressive from the outset and kept piling on.
    — Patrick Saunders, Denver Post, 1 June 2026
  • The Quakes then piled on with four goals in an 11-minute span to put away Austin (1-4-4).
    — Harold Gutmann, Mercury News, 23 Apr. 2026
  • More and more people are solving that exact problem by paring down instead of piling on.
    — Ryan Brennan, Charlotte Observer, 19 June 2026
  • Suddenly all of those wolves appeared to pile on one wolf, and the growling and yipping carried for miles in the still, cold air.
    — Frank Glaser, Outdoor Life, 1 Apr. 2026
  • New toys, like the spaceship and the motorcycle, were piled on old toys, like the cowboy I’d had as a kid.
    — Will MacKin, New Yorker, 28 June 2026
  • The Dodgers piled on in the third with a three-run home run from Andy Pages, the team’s hottest hitter to start the year.
    — Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr. 2026
  • The paradox of choice means piling on more options will not get you there, so the answer is a little structure, not a bigger pile.
    — Ryan Brennan, Sacbee.com, 23 June 2026
  • To a regular bookstore-goer, a pyramid looks like a simple stack of books piled on a display table.
    — Adam Chandler, Bloomberg, 26 May 2026
  • The two Fords piled on and crossed over, and Henry Ford himself watched over the proceedings.
    — Eric Moskowitz, The Atlantic, 31 May 2026
  • South Africa is piling on the pressure, but Kim Seung-gyu is keeping his goal clean.
    — Marlene Lenthang, NBC news, 25 June 2026
  • The other element piles on to a theme that the Bengals must take advantage of this season.
    — Paul Dehner Jr, New York Times, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Brinkman warns that Tesla risks earning puny returns on all the new capital piling on its balance sheet.
    — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 7 Apr. 2026
  • These states are showing that modernizing the high school diploma is not about piling on requirements.
    — Matt Gandal, Forbes.com, 18 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pile on.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: