I.
noun
ADJECTIVE
▪ big , enormous , great , huge , large , massive
▪ little , small
▪ neat , tidy ( esp. BrE )
▪ untidy ( esp. BrE )
VERB + PILE
▪ place sth in/into/on , put sth in/into/on
▪
I put the letter in the envelope and placed it on the ~.
▪
I've put the books into three separate ~s.
▪ dump
▪
He dumped a ~ of dirty clothes onto the floor.
▪ add sth to
▪
Just add that application to the ~.
▪ flick through ( esp. BrE ), flip through ( esp. AmE ), look through , shuffle through , sort through
▪
I sorted through the ~ of documents until I found it.
PREPOSITION
▪ amid a/the ~
▪
The money lay amid a ~ of unopened letters.
▪ behind a/the ~
▪
He was busy behind a ~ of papers on his desk.
▪ beneath a/the ~ , under a/the ~
▪
I pulled my diary from beneath a ~ of files.
▪ in a/the ~
▪
The clothes were in a ~ on the floor.
▪ on a/the ~
▪
She closed the magazine and threw it back on the ~.
▪ ~ of
▪
a ~ of books
▪
I had ~s of work to do.
PHRASES
▪ be reduced to a ~ of sth
▪
The house was reduced to a ~ of rubble.
▪ the bottom of the ~ , the top of the ~
▪
I grabbed a shirt from the top of the ~.
▪
At the bottom of the ~ were the prostitutes and drug dealers. ( figurative )
▪ sort sth into ~s
▪
I sorted the clothes into two ~s.
II.
verb
ADVERB
▪ neatly
▪ haphazardly
▪ up
▪
We ~d the boxes up neatly.
PREPOSITION
▪ against
▪
We ~d sandbags against the door.
▪ on , onto
▪
She ~d food onto our plates.
▪ on top of
▪
They ~d stones on top of the mound.
▪ with
▪
a table ~d high with magazines
PHRASES
▪ ~d high
Pile is used with these nouns as the subject: ↑ snow
Pile is used with these nouns as the object: ↑ crate , ↑ trolley