We are in a time of never-ending Twitter pile-ons. Sometimes the criticism is warranted: Twitter can be a place for marginalised voices to amplify or bring attention to an injustice they have suffered.

A social media “pile-on” against anyone who criticises Sinn Féin does not aid or assist the party, its housing spokesman has said.

Muzzling Kelly also elevates a semi-professional obscurantist to the status of free speech martyr, and that invites a cacophonous pile-on from the rightwing bobble heads who screech about the left’s obsession with identity politics while shovelling identity politics at their audiences.

Online, there’s a level of industrial-scale bullying directed at Heard that puts all previous social media pile-ons to shame.

As football linebackers pile on a quarterback in a blitz, the newspaper editorialist heaped sarcasm onto the president.

Piling on: Players may not pile on a runner after the ball is dead or intentionally fall upon any prostrate player.

The quarterback turns and hands the ball to his fullback just as Sumo hits him in the backfield causing a fumble. Ball loose, ball loose screamed Jones. There is a mad scramble for the loose ball as bodies pile on top of each other.

Piling on Nickelback is old hat. Can't we all just move on already? Chad Kroeger and his band are still the group everyone loves to hate, but after the Queensland police put out a wanted poster for them for ‘crimes against music’ Luke Holland asks: has the hating gone too far?

The hashtag #WorstFlotusEver has started to take off on Twitter, with critics piling on the former model by listing their many grievances and mocking her achievements over the past four years.

Pile on

Meaning

Verb

Noun

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