dogpile

Etymology

From dog + pile. In reference to piles of people, originally as a noun after earlier pig pile. In reference to dog excrement, a clipping of pile of shit.

noun

1. (US colloquial) A disorderly pile of people formed by jumping upon a victim.
   The bottom man of a 'dog pile' in a fraternity house scuffle is in a hospital with a neck dislocation. 1948 November 21, Los Angeles Times, Sect. i, p. 20
2. (figurative, US colloquial) Any similarly disorderly pile of people or things.
   Purdy tucked the pigskin under his elbow and cantered over a dog-pile for a tally. November 19 1921, The Nebraska State Journal, page 3
   Unscrambling the dogpile of objects can be messy. 1993, Christopher G. Jones, “Object-Oriented Analysis with CASE”, in Computer-aided Software Engineering, page 348
3. (US colloquial, euphemistic) A pile of dogshit.
   Mrs. Brown cleaned her lawn up bright and early each day; Picked up all the dog piles so her children could play. March 6 1950, The Tri-City Herald, page 6

verb

1. (US colloquial, transitive, intransitive, often with 'on') To jump into a dogpile.
   He can either take a beating from one man or... be dogpiled by a dozen men. c. 1947, Tamotsu Shibutani, The Derelicts of Company K, page 273
   I fumbled the snap, fell on the ball and about 10 guys dog-piled on top of me. 1989 September 7, The Los Angeles Times, Sect. ix, p. 16
   A vampire got her around the neck from behind; then more, dogpiling her. 2003, Nancy Holder, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chosen, page 657
   That story — about Carlson’s conflicted response to the sight of “a group of Trump guys” dogpiling an “Antifa kid” — appears to involve a crisis of conscience, an unexpected, chastening eruption of empathy. 2023-05-03, A. O. Scott, “Tucker Carlson’s Code of Whiteness”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
2. (figurative, US, colloquial, transitive, intransitive) To pile on, to overwhelm in other senses.
   But this guy was serious, using online payment services and dogpiling her e-mail box within minutes, requesting expedited shipping. 2005, Craig Spector, Underground, page 169