gangpile

English

Alternative forms

gang-pile

Etymology

From gang +‎ pile, likely based on dogpile.

Noun

gangpile (plural gangpiles)

(colloquial) An argument or fight in which one side is greatly advantaged by being more numerous or more closely allied than the other side.
Synonym: pile on
- 1997 November 3, Liquorhead, “Monday Night Raw - Quit with the DGenX crap!”, in rec.sport.pro-wrestling‎^[1] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  Sting gets ready to punk them all out, but then the NWO attack Hogan in a massive gangpile.
- 2001 June 5, Rev. Tiernan, “apologies to this group”, in rec.pets.cats.health+behav‎^[2] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  What I'm referring to is the consistent and repeated pattern of attacks from you three members off the Bully Brigade, to the point where I can identify a post one of you three will attack before you even attack it, followed by the gangpile on the hapless person when they react.
- 2003 November 20, Jerry K., “hello from ofiddle”, in rec.skydiving‎^[3] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  >trying to gangpile an innocent old man
  Trying? Well, as much as a gangpile can be accomplished on an electronics newsgroup, succeeding is more like but even then it's written word against written word. I doubt you could handle it at a real bonfire.

Verb

gangpile (third-person singular simple present gangpiles, present participle gangpiling, simple past and past participle gangpiled)

(colloquial) To attack someone or something as a group.
Synonyms: dogpile, gang up on, pile on
- 1997 January 25, Mika Elmeranta, “Creative Spell Use”, in rec.games.frp.dnd‎^[4] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  Try to gangpile someone who has a paralyzing touch...
- 1999 October 20, Mikhail Sergeyvich Gorbachev, “Empire players have become soft, pathetic whiners”, in rec.games.empire‎^[5] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  Strategy to win a game ala Heatwave, requires three countries to participate:
  Country A attacks country X
  Countries B & C gangpile on X
  Country B attacks country Y
  Countries A & C gangpile on Y
  Country C attacks country Z
  Countries A & B gangpile on Z
  (countries X, Y and Z are 4 times smaller than A, B or C)
- 2000 November 13, Rev. Syd Midnight, “Two wonderful sentences”, in alt.tasteless‎^[6] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  I've always wanted to gangpile onto a mastodon, naked and stabbing it with a spear.
- 2001 September 8, Trudi Marrapodi, “"Easy double Axel"”, in rec.sport.skating.ice.figure‎^[7] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  Anyway, I'm not madly in love with Roz's commentary, but it does seem unfair to me to gang-pile her for calling double axels "easy" when other people miss them, on the basis of how many SHE personally missed in her career.
- 2004 January 5, Little devil on your shoulder, “steve irwin(nearly) feeds newborn bub to croc”, in alt.fan.john-denver‎^[8] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  The gangpiling on Steve Irwin by the press and those following the reports are getting ridiculous.
- 2004 July 2, Sali Mali, “Hilary Duff Plumps Up”, in alt.showbiz.gossip‎^[9] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  It's like there's about a 10-pound window of "acceptable" weight for women, and if you go the slightest bit above or below that, everyone feels free to gangpile on and scream abuse at you.
- 2014 March 26, Loren Pechtel, “Most Powerful Cleric Spell ever.”, in rec.games.frp.dnd‎^[10] (Usenet), retrieved 2022-02-10:
  Sorry, go behind enemy lines and cast it so there are no friendlies in range. The bad guys can't gangpile you because they don't have any actions to do it with. Since they have no actions they are helpless and can't defend against CDG attacks from the rest of the party.