# heap
## 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: /hiːp/
* ((Ireland), dated) enPR: hāp, IPA: /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. […], volume (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. […], volume (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

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### 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

    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

* HAPE, HEPA, epha, hep A

## 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

* IPA: /xæ͜ɑːp/, [hæ͜ɑːp]

### Noun

hēap m
* group
** c. 992, Ælfric, "The Nativity of St. Paul the Apostle"
    [Petrus] āna spræc for ealne þone hēap.[Peter] by himself spoke for the whole group.
* heap

#### Declension

Strong a-stem:

#### Derived terms

* hēapmǣlum

#### Descendants

* Middle English: hepe, heep, hep
** English: heap
** Yola: heep

## Portuguese
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English heap.

### Noun

heap m or f (plural heaps)
* (computing) heap (tree-based data structure)

## 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)
* heap, pile
* mass, gang, horde

#### Further reading

* “heap”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011