heap
/hiːp/ noun, verb, adverb, proper noun
- noun A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.
- noun 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”
- noun A great number or large quantity of things.
- noun (computing) A data structure consisting of trees in which each node is greater than all its children.
- noun (computing) Memory that is dynamically allocated. “You should move these structures from the stack to the heap to avoid a potential stack overflow.”
- noun (colloquial) A dilapidated place or vehicle. “My first car was an old heap.”
- noun (colloquial) A lot, a large amount. “Thanks a heap!”
- verb (transitive) To pile in a heap. “He heaped the laundry upon the bed and began folding.”
- verb (transitive) To form or round into a heap, as in measuring.
- verb (transitive) To supply in great quantity. “They heaped praise upon their newest hero.”
- adverb (possibly offensive) very or much; representing broken English stereotypically or comically attributed to Native Americans
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
amass heap up pile up pile mound agglomerate cumulation cumulus batch deal flock good deal great deal hatful lot mass mess mickle mint mountain muckle passel peck plenty pot quite a little raft sight slew spate
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)).
English surname, from the noun heap.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of persons. [Now Low or Humorous]
- noun A great number or large quantity of things not placed in a pile.
- verb To collect in great quantity; to amass; to lay up; to accumulate; --usually with up; as, to heap up treasures.
- verb To throw or lay in a heap; to make a heap of; to pile; as, to heap stones; --often with up; as, to heap up earth; or with on; as, to heap on wood or coal.
Etymology [OE. heep, heap, heap, multitude, AS. heáp; akin to OS. h, D. hoop, OHG. houf, h, G. haufe, haufen, Sw. hop, Dan. hob., Icel. h troop, flock, Russ. kupa heap, crowd, Lith. kaupas. Cf. Hope, in Forlorn hope.]
Etymology [AS. heápian.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “heap”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details