car pile-up
2
3.7
- noun
:
choque múltiple
- The I-95 has been completely shut down due to a weather-related six-car pile up at exit 15, southbound.
- a three-car pile-up
- a five-car pile-up
- causing a car pile-up
Examples
-
Jessica turned on the radio to keep her mind busy while she waited behind a six-car pile-up that would make her late for work once more.
Fiction book (1995) -
There was a thirteen car pile-up on the 80 last night.
-
There was a car pile up.
-
Six car pile-up, 11 injuries, four went over to county and six are coming here.
-
Should Grosjean receive any penalty for his actions that led to a multi-car pile-up?
Blog text (27) -
They gave me a story about a ten-car pile-up on 54th Street.
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A few winters ago, there was an 8-car pile-up on 295 when some kid threw some snowballs over the bridge and hit an unsuspecting car that swerved.
Blog text (13) -
Last night, a major accident caused a car pile-up involving over twenty vehicles on the highway.
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Reports indicate that a three-car pile-up occurred during the storm, blocking traffic for hours.
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The news reported a severe car pile-up after drivers failed to slow down for the icy conditions.
Synonyms
∞
2.3
A violent collision of vehicles like cars or planes that causes damage
148
3.8
A crash when two moving vehicles hit each other
105
2.7
A serious accident involving vehicles like cars
72
1.3
A collision between cars that causes damage or injury
3
3.2
A crash involving several vehicles on a road
1
5.8
A serious road crash where vehicles hit each other hard
How Severe
Surface Forms
Morphology
car + pile-up
The compound is directly compositional: 'pile-up' is interpretable as an accumulation (from 'pile' + 'up'), and adding 'car' straightforwardly denotes an accumulation of cars — i.e. a multi-vehicle crash. This literal, predictable combination follows normal English compounding patterns and is cross-linguistically transparent, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can infer the meaning.
Etymology
Car pile-up comes from the clear image of many cars pushed together in a heap or pile after they crash into each other. So it now means 'a road accident involving several cars'.