heap

noun

1. 1

   A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.

   A Heap of Vassals, and Slaues: […] A People that is without Naturall Affection, […] A Nation without Morality, without Letters, Arts, or Sciences

   He had plenty of friends, heaps of friends in the parliamentary sense

2. 2

   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

   Huge heaps of slain around the body rise.

   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.

3. 3

   A great number or large quantity of things.

   a vast heap, both of places of scripture and quotations

   I have noticed a heap of things in my life.

4. 4

   A data structure consisting of trees in which each node is greater than all its children.

5. 5

   Memory that is dynamically allocated.

   You should move these structures from the stack to the heap to avoid a potential stack overflow.

6. 6

   A dilapidated place or vehicle.

   My first car was an old heap.

   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.

7. 7

   A lot, a large amount.

   Thanks a heap!

   [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 […]

verb

1. 1

   To pile in a heap.

   He heaped the laundry upon the bed and began folding.

2. 2

   To form or round into a heap, as in measuring.

   Cry a reward, to him who shall first bring News of that vanished Arabian, A full-heap’d helmet of the purest gold.

3. 3

   To supply in great quantity.

   They heaped praise upon their newest hero.

   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.

adverb

1. 1

   very or much; representing broken English stereotypically or comically attributed to Native Americans

   Chuckaway too no good. Heap water, little chuckaway. Heap sticks, and still little chuckaway.

   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.

   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.

Forms

plural

heaps

past tense

heaped

past participle

heaped

present participle

heaping

third person singular

heaps