pig pile

• pig-pile, pigpile

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

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪɡpʌɪl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈpɪɡˌpaɪl/

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, p. 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, p. 8:

     They pig-piled at the very end, and we threw ice cubes on them.

3. (figuratively, 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, p. 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.

• See dogpile

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, p. 462:

     Rolling in a mud-puddle, heels up in the air, amid a mound of humanity, very pertinently called a 'pig-pile'.

• See dogpile

• “pig-pile, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2006.
• “pig-pile, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2006.