1 (heap) [of books, clothes] montón (m) the clothes were folded in a neat pile sort your dirty washing into piles /the dirty plates were stacked in a pile/ on the draining board a pile of sand there's a pile of bills on my desk a little pile of crumbs he threw more wood onto the pile a pile of old tin cans the leaves had been swept into huge piles a pile of boxes we sat in Sam's study, among the piles of books he picked up one of the papers, which were now in an untidy pile I just leave one big pile of washing up, I'm afraid
to put things in a pile amontonar cosas; juntar cosas en un montón he was putting the building bricks in little piles on the floor she put the letters in a pile
the building was reduced to a pile of rubble el edificio quedó reducido a un montón or una pila de escombros to be at the bottom of the pile \COB2 the recession is hitting people hard, and not just those at the bottom of the pile when it comes to being offered a job, older people are at the bottom of the pile to be at the top of the pile it's been 20 years since a British player was top of the pile with the money and influential friends they had they soon got to the top of the pile people who have fought their way to the top of the human pile
2 (large amount) montón (informal) (m) I've got piles of work to do tengo un montón or tengo montones de trabajo que hacer (informal)
we received a pile of mail he's got a pile of piles of money stashed away I've got a pile of questions afterwards for you a whole pile of disasters
3 (fortune) dineral (informal) (m); fortuna (f) he has made a fortune, a very sizable pile, in his business to [make] a pile
he made a pile on this deal ganó un dineral or una fortuna con el trato; se hizo de oro con el trato my brother made a pile selling videos they're the sort who'd expect a son-in-law to have made a pile for himself before requesting their daughter's hand to make [one's] pile
he made his pile in oil hizo su fortuna con el petróleo
I didn't make my pile by being taken for a fool a Scotsman who made his pile from trading with Victoria's gold miners
4 (building) mole (f) (humorous) some stately pile in the country una mole de casa or un caserón en el campo
Badminton, the Duke of Beaufort's Palladian pile it was a huge grey pile in nineteenth-century Gothic old red brick pile of a school a 255-room pile of stone in the style of a Loire chateau the Victorian pile of the Town Hall was floodlit he lives in a big pile in West Sussex when he's not here in the City
