Meaning & use
pile-on
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Meaning
nouncountableinformal
A situation where many people attack, criticize, or join against one person or group at the same time.
Grammar: Countable: a pile-on, the pile-on, pile-ons. Usually singular in use.
Patterns
- a pile-on against someone
- a pile-on on social media
- join the pile-on
After her tweet, she faced a pile-on from thousands of users.
The politician described the criticism as a media pile-on.
He left social media after a pile-on against him.
Word forms
| plural | pile-ons |
|---|
Common combinations
- a pile-on against someone
- The pile-on against the actress lasted for days.
- join the pile-on
- Many celebrities joined the pile-on after the video went viral.
- a social media pile-on
- The company apologized after a social media pile-on.
- face a pile-on
- She faced a pile-on for her comments.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- pile on phrasal verb
- To join others in attacking or criticizing someone.
Commonly confused: pile-on or pile on?
pile-on vs pile on
The verb is written as two words: 'They piled on.' The noun is hyphenated: 'a pile-on'.
Practice
Which sentence uses the noun 'pile-on' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The noun is countable and hyphenated: 'a pile-on'. Option 0 uses it correctly. Option 3 misses the hyphen, and the others use it as a verb or without a determiner.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pile-on”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.