heap
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English
Etymology
From Middle English hepe, from Old English hēap, from Proto-West Germanic *haup, from Proto-Germanic *haupaz (compare Dutch hoop, German Low German Hupen, German Haufen), from Proto-Indo-European *koupos (“hill”) (compare Lithuanian kaũpas, Albanian qipi (“stack”), Avestan 𐬐𐬂𐬟𐬀 (kåfa)).
Pronunciation
- enPR: hēp, IPA(key): /hiːp/
- ((Ireland), dated) enPR: hāp, IPA(key): /heːp/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːp
Noun
heap (plural heaps)
- A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.
- 1622 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “An Advertisement Touching an Holy VVarre. ”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. , London: I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, , published 1629, →OCLC, page 104:
- A Heap of Vassals, and Slaues: […] A People that is without Naturall Affection, […] A Nation without Morality, without Letters, Arts, or Sciences
- 1858, Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman & Hall, , →OCLC:
- He had plenty of friends, heaps of friends in the parliamentary sense
- A pile or mass; a collection of things laid in a body, or thrown together so as to form an elevation.
- a heap of earth; a heap of stones
- 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:
- Huge heaps of slain around the body rise.
- 2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian:
- Every break seemed dangerous and Falcao clearly had the beating of Amorebieta. Others, being forced to stretch a foot behind them to control Arda Turan's 34th-minute cross, might simply have lashed a shot on the turn; Falcao, though, twisted back on to his left foot, leaving Amorebieta in a heap, and thumped in an inevitable finish – his 12th goal in 15 European matches this season.
- A great number or large quantity of things.
- 1679, Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England:
- a vast heap, both of places of scripture and quotations
- 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, Will o' the Mill:
- I have noticed a heap of things in my life.
- (computing) A data structure consisting of trees in which each node is greater than all its children.
- (computing) Memory that is dynamically allocated.
- You should move these structures from the stack to the heap to avoid a potential stack overflow.
- (colloquial) A dilapidated place or vehicle.
- My first car was an old heap.
- 1991 May 12, “Kidnapped!”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 2, Episode 5:
- Chuffy: It's on a knife edge at the moment, Bertie. If he can get planning permission, old Stoker's going to take this heap off my hands in return for vast amounts of oof.
- (colloquial) A lot, a large amount
- Thanks a heap!
- 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 10, in The History of Pendennis. , volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, , published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
- [W]e went to the play, and Pen was struck all of a heap with Miss Fotheringay … And he’s fallen in love with her—and I’m blessed if he hasn’t proposed to her […]
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:lot
Derived terms
- all of a heap
- ant-heap
- ash-heap
- ash-heap-cake
- ash heap of history
- at the top of the heap
- compost heap
- dung heap
- dung-heap
- dust heap of history
- garbage heap of history
- Heap Bridge
- heapful
- heapmeal
- it takes a heap of living to make a house a home
- it takes a heap o' livin' to make a house a home
- scrap-heap
- scrap heap
- slag heap
- spoil heap
- thanks a heap
- to-heap
- trash heap of history
Descendants
- Sranan Tongo: ipi
Translations
crowd
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pile
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great number or large quantity of things
|
type of data structure
|
colloquial: dilapidated place or vehicle
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
heap (third-person singular simple present heaps, present participle heaping, simple past and past participle heaped)
- (transitive) To pile in a heap.
- He heaped the laundry upon the bed and began folding.
- (transitive) To form or round into a heap, as in measuring.
- 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act I, scene II, verses 40-42:
- Cry a reward, to him who shall first bring
News of that vanished Arabian,
A full-heap’d helmet of the purest gold.
- (transitive) To supply in great quantity.
- They heaped praise upon their newest hero.
- 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:
- Then, in January, a creeping tsunami of train cancellations, triggered by major staff absences as a result of the aggressive transmissibility of Omicron, heaped further misery on rail users.
Synonyms
- (pile in a heap): amass, heap up, pile up; see also Thesaurus:pile up
Derived terms
- heap coals of fire on someone's head
- heaped (adj), heaping (adj)
- heap on
- heap up
- overheap
- heap insult on injury
Translations
to pile in a heap
to form or round into a heap
to supply in great quantity
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adverb
heap (not comparable)
- (possibly offensive) very; representing broken English stereotypically or comically attributed to Native Americans
- 1980, Joey Lee Dillard, Perspectives on American English, page 417:
- We are all familiar with the stereotyped broken English which writers of Western stories, comic strips, and similar literature put into the mouths of Indians: 'me heap big chief', 'you like um fire water', and so forth.
- 2004, John Robert Colombo, The Penguin Book of Canadian Jokes, page 175:
- Once upon a time, a Scotsman, an Englishman, and an Irishman are captured by the Red Indians […] He approaches the Englishman, pinches the skin of his upper arm, and says, "Hmmm, heap good skin, nice and thick.
Anagrams
Old English
Etymology
From Proto-Germanic *haupaz.
Cognate with Old Frisian hāp, Old Saxon hōp, Old High German houf. Old Norse hópr differs from the expected form *haupr because it is a borrowing from Middle Low German.
Pronunciation
Noun
hēap m
- group
- c. 992, Ælfric, "The Nativity of St. Paul the Apostle"
- [Petrus] āna spræc for ealne þone hēap.
- by himself spoke for the whole group.
- c. 992, Ælfric, "The Nativity of St. Paul the Apostle"
- heap
Declension
Declension of heap (strong a-stem)
Derived terms
Descendants
Portuguese
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English heap.
Noun
heap m or f (plural heaps)
West Frisian
Etymology
From Old Frisian hāp, from Proto-West Germanic *haup, from Proto-Germanic *haupaz (“heap”).
Noun
heap c (plural heapen or heappen, diminutive heapke)
Further reading
- “heap”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011