Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A group of things placed or thrown, one on top of the other: a heap of dirty rags lying in the corner.
- n. Informal A great deal; a lot. Often used in the plural: We have heaps of homework tonight.
- n. Slang An old or run-down car.
- v. To put or throw in a pile.
- v. To fill completely or to overflowing: heap a plate with vegetables.
- v. To bestow in abundance or lavishly: heaped praise on the rescuers.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A great number of persons or animals; a troop; a crowd; a multitude.
- n. A great number of things; a large accumulation, stock, or store of any kind; a large quantity; a great deal: as, a heap of money; the frost destroyed a heap of fruit.
- n. A collection of things laid in a body so as to form an elevation; a pile or raised mass: as, a heap of earth or stones. In some places a heap of limestone was formerly 4¾ cubic yards.
- n. In mathematics, a collection of objects all related in the same way one to another.
- To cast, lay, or gather in a heap; pile; accumulate; amass: as, to heap stones or ore: often with up or on: as, to heap up treasures; to heap on wood or coal.
- To round or form into a heap, as in measuring; give or fill with overflowing measure.
- To bestow a heap or large quantity upon.
Wiktionary
- n. A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.
- n. A great number or large quantity of things not placed in a pile.
- n. A pile or mass; a collection of things laid in a body, or thrown together so as to form an elevation; as, a heap of earth or stones.
- n. computing A data structure consisting of trees in which each node is greater than all its children.
- v. transitive To pile in a heap.
- v. transitive To form or round into a heap, as in measuring.
- v. transitive To supply in great quantity.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Now Low or Humorous A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of persons.
- n. Now Low or Humorous A great number or large quantity of things not placed in a pile.
- n. A pile or mass; a collection of things laid in a body, or thrown together so as to form an elevation.
- v. To collect in great quantity; to amass; to lay up; to accumulate; -- usually with
up . - v. To throw or lay in a heap; to make a heap of; to pile; ; -- often with up; ; or with on.
- v. To form or round into a heap, as in measuring; to fill (a measure) more than even full.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a collection of objects laid on top of each other
- n. a car that is old and unreliable
- v. fill to overflow
- v. bestow in large quantities
- n. (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
- v. arrange in stacks
Etymologies
- Middle English heep, from Old English hēap, from Proto-Germanic *haupaz (cf. Dutch hoop, Low German Hupen, German Haufen), from Proto-Indo-European *koupos ‘hill’ (cf. Lithuanian kaũpas, Albanian qipi ‘stack’, Avestan kaofa) (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English hēap. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Of Sinners 'tis said, _They heap up wrath; _ and the sinners of the Last Generations do not only add unto the _heap_ of sin that has been pileing up ever since the Fall of man, but they Interest themselves in every sin of that enormous heap.”
“The slush pile, she explained, showing dimples, was what they called the heap of unsolicited manuscripts that dropped through their letter-box day by day.”
“Their name for hundred is 'yha,' which means 'heap' -- that is, a heap of cowries.”
“This jaw-dropping heap is the Hyatt Aqualea, a 17-story, 268-unit luxury condo-hotel that opened in February, the last of the Clearwater Beach megaprojects to come on line over the past decade.”
“Top of the heap is China who executed at least 1,010 people from a population of 1.321 billion - that's a rate almost five times that of the USA.”
“Next, a zesty seasoning mixture of ground chiles, ginger, garlic and green onions, plus other condiments (eg; dried fish or shrimp, for those that like that sort of thing) are added, and the whole heap is left to mature.”
“If, as most believe, the Referendum says 'no' to independence, the Nationalist fox will have been well and truly shot (sorry, subjected to 'exempt hunting'); if it says 'yes' then GB is in heap big trouble.”
“At the top of the dung heap is the ECB's chief, Frenchman Jean-Claude Trichet who is calling for "strong vigilance" to stop inflation lodging in the system, and signalling an interest rate rise to 3 percent in August by calling for a full meeting of governors, instead of the usual summer teleconference.”
“The roadkill compost heap is really, really creepy.”
“Top of the heap is Brett Myers, a first-rounder in 1999 who has been described as a Curt Schilling clone.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘heap’.
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
wrath, leaf, belly, prey, death, break, six, nod, dim, end, inn, judge and 1286 more...
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multiple meaning words
These words seem very familiar but are awfully-versatile and oftentimes serve senses exceptionally beyond people's presumptions ...
sense, serve, please, say, profile, draw, weather, bear, project, ship, profiler, tune and 140 more...
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EN - Old Western Slang
a hog-killin' time, a lick and a promise, according to Hoyle, ace-high, all down but nine, arbuckle's, at sea, back down, balled up, bang-up, bazoo, bear sign and 212 more...
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Units Of Anything
Descriptions of when more than one thing is present. Usually proceeding the word "of"
Example: "Pile" of Junkunit, pile, horde, group, slew, crowd, bunch, set, heap, nest, gross, glut and 21 more...
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Automobiles
ambulance, automobile, beach buggy, cab, car, cement mixer, cherry, coach, compact, convertible, coupe, deuce and 66 more...
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Formerly
Being a list of words with definitions containing the word "formerly."
formerly, armorer, link, plummet, brank, pall-mall, florin, quondam, erstwhile, imponderable, recant, ether and 32 more...
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Programming Jargon
Stuff that comes up all the time at work.
continuation, data structure, node, closure, compiler, funarg problem, garbage collection, pointer, anonymous function, block, currying, first-class function and 63 more...
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Heaps
heap, heaps, aggerose, aggest, cumulus, accumulate, heap of trouble, thanks heaps, agget, agglomeration, The Heap, paradox of the heap
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, H
hurlyburly, hurtle, hodgepodge, heartwood, hatch, halo, hooptedoodle, hacienda, hairpin, heyday, hardscrabble, hopper and 208 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Wrapped up in books
I'm reading books. And there are words and phrases I come upon for the first time, or that are used with usages that are new to me.
So, this is just a plain list of those words. Don't expect ...hobble, mackerel, crone, cavort, hoyden, rheumy, scatter, hiss, recoil, trundle, shatter, flaxen and 200 more...
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The Measure of Man
Unusual, arcane, or obscure units of measure
cable, cabot, bushel, cade, caliper, callipic cycle, metonic cycle, cunit, air watt, ale gallon, allergy unit, amber and 228 more...
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Into the mix
A medley of mixtures, mostly ones where the constituents are still distinct. I tagged kinds of stew.
mixture, commixture, admixture, intermixture, intermingling, commingling, mingling, marriage, union, integration, syncretion, permutation and 129 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for heap.

reesetee "In some places a heap of limestone was formerly 4¾ cubic yards." -- Century Dictionary (thanks to ruzuzu!) Mar 5, 2012
yarb What one does with opprobrium. Oct 26, 2007