Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to attack verbally.

1896

‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer, Detective Ch. VI: But she busted in on him there and just piled into him and snowed him under.

2. to attack physically, to crash into, to get to work on, to take part in.

1887		M. Roberts Western Avernus (1924) 33: They [...] asked us to sit down with them and pile in.
1894		Outing (N.Y.) XXIV 417/1: The dog [...] [will] never ‘pile onto’ any more bears [DA].
1906		U.B. Sinclair Jungle 183: Like as not a dozen [policemen] would pile on to him at once, and pound his face into a pulp.
1911		Gem 21 Oct. 7: Blessed if I can see how I can pile in when you’re making such a blessed row.
1915		Van Loan ‘The Spotted Sheep’ Taking the Count 116: Pile right into him, boy!
1924		D. Hammett ‘One Hour’ Nightmare Town (2001) 260: They piled the car into him. It was sure death.
1929		M. Bodenheim Sixty Seconds 67: You pile into me when I’m rough and you wade in when I’m sorry for it.
1930		J.T. Farrell ‘Curbstone Philosophy’ in Short Stories (1937) 218: We piles in and we knocks de eight-ball for a goal and gives him de royal clouts.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 137: If anybody ever leaned on Kenny the whole gang would pile on him, and send him to the hospital.
1950		J.T. Farrell ‘The Fastest Runner’ in Amer. Dream Girl (1950) 16: If any kid would have picked on him, Tony would have piled into that kid.
c.1960		‘Jimmie Tucker’ in G. Logsdon Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing (1995) 67: He grins and he points to the Double O roan, / That’s piled every puncher that ever rode alone.
1980		A. Payne ‘All Mod Cons’ Minder [TV script] 26: She piles into Terry.
1992		D. Jarman letter 24 May Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 131: I’m piling into the Wittgenstein biography.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 287: In seconds they would pile on and pull me off. If I’d had even two or three minutes I would have assaulted him.
1999		Guardian 17 July 7: One of Tate’s friends [...] then ‘piled in’ to strike the helpless researcher.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 105: The Parakeet crowd [...] piled in to protect their own.

(US) to end up (at), esp. of an evening out.

1943

W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 205: How come you piled up here sick?

(US) to boast, to lie.

1977

Maledicta 1 (Summer) 14: If he is fundamentally dishonest and a liar to boot, he [...] is shovelling or piling it higher and deeper (Ph.D.).

1. to perform an act with greater intensity.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 97/1: On my looking over at Joe, I could read in his eye that he meant ‘besting’ him; so I ‘officed’ to him to pile it on thick and get through with the affair.
1887		W.T. Call Josh Hayseed in N.Y. 117: When you come to tell ’em that I pay any sech outrageous debts as that, you’re pilin’ it on too thick.
1890		Sporting Times 26 Apr. 1/2: Pile it on Reve d’Or.
c.1905		J. Furphy Rigby’s Romance (1921) Ch. xi: 🌐 ‘Go ahead, pile it on!’ retorted Thompson, maliciously.
1905		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘They Begged To Differ’ Sporting Times 15 Apr. 1/3: She liked not the suggestions he / Advanced; she p’raps deemed them to be / A shade too stiff, and all agree / That nobody beats Mr. G / In piling it on stiffer.
1936		W.R. Burnett King Cole 162: [of a scolding] He felt that he wasn’t playing fair, that he was piling it up on Johnny; but it had been absolutely necessary that he say something.
1959		A. Burgess Beds in the East (1972) 527: ‘He did pile it on. I failed to see any connection between your laughing at butterflies and being stung by a scorpion, but then perhaps my particular line of study has made me too rational-minded’.

2. to charge a high price.

1883

‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 390: A rich man won’t have anything but your very best; and you can just pile it on, too – pile it on and sock it to him.