▪ I. heap, n.
(hiːp)
Forms: 1 héap, 2– heap, (2 hap, 3 hæp, 3–5 hep, 4 (Ayenb.) hyeap, hyap, 4–7 heep, hepe, 5 heppe, heype, 6 Sc. heip, 6–7 heape).
[OE. héap = OFris. hâp, OS. hôp (MDu., MLG., LG. hôp, Du. hoop), OHG. houf (MHG. houf), ON. hópr (Sw. hop, Da. hob) adopted from LG.; wanting in Gothic; :—OTeut. *haupo-z. In ablaut relation to OHG. hûfo, MHG. hûfe, Ger. haufe:—*hûpon-; from stem *hup-, pre-Teut. *kub-: cf. L. cumbĕre, cubāre.]
1. a. A collection of things lying one upon another so as to form an elevated mass often roughly conical in form. (A heap of things placed regularly one above another is more distinctively called a pile.)
| c 725 Corpus Gloss. 1912 (O.E.T.) Strues, heap. c 897 K. ælfred Gregory's Past. xlviii. (Sw.) 367 Galað on Ebreisc, ðæt is on Englisc ᵹewitnesse heap. a 1225 Ancr. R. 314 Heo gedereð al þet greste on one heape. 1340 Ayenb. 139 Zuo hit is of þe hyeape of huete y-þorsse. 1382 Wyclif Song Sol. vii. 2 An hep [1388 heep] of whete. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiii. iii. (1495) 442 Hepes of grauell and erthe. c 1450 Mirour Saluacioun 1470 Of..twelue stones fro the bank..Thai made a hepe. 1535 Coverdale Ps. lxxviii[i]. 1 They haue..made Ierusalem an heape of stones. 1574 J. Dee in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 39 An heap of old papers and parchments. 1611 Bible Josh. iii. 13 The waters of Jordan..shall stand upon an heape. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 252 The waters will..be attracted by the moon, and rise in an heap. 1854 Ronalds & Richardson Chem. Technol. (ed. 2) I. 111 Coking in Heaps or Ridges.—The oldest and still very common method of preparing coke is in meiler or heaps. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. viii. 266 At first sight, these sand-covered cones appear huge heaps of dirt. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Heap (Newc.), the refuse at the pit's mouth. |
b. fig. of things immaterial.
| c 1200 Ormin 4330 All þiss þrinne taless hæp. a 1300 Cursor M. 26021 Scailand a hepe es samen o sin. 1340 Ayenb. 130 He yziȝþ þane greate heap of his zennes. |
† c. Mass, main body. Obs.
| 1608 Shakes. Per. i. i. 33 Her countless glory..which, without desert, because thine eye Presumes to reach, all thy whole heap must die. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 87 ¶8 If we consider the Heap of an Army, utterly out of all Prospect of Rising and Preferment. |
d. fallacy of the heap: see quot. 1768–74.
| 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 140 Their sophism of the sorites, or argument of the heap; because, say they, if you drop a number of things upon one another you can never tell precisely when they begin to make a heap. 1893 Oxford Mag. 1 Nov. 39/1 Mr. A.'s contention..seems to us based on a petitio principii, or on the fallacy of the heap. |
e. Usually preceded by a defining word: a slovenly woman. colloq. (orig. dial.).
| 1806 A. Douglas Poems 125 She jaw'd them, misca'd them For clashin' claikin' haips. 1810 J. Cock Simple Strains ii. 91 Foul fa' the sly bewitchin' heap Cou'd turn hersel' in ony shape. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 300 The fat heap he married is a nice old phenomenon with a back on her like a ball-eye. 1957 J. Frame Owls do Cry 106, I may be forced to [sell-out], if that lazy heap doesn't help me. |
f. A battered old motor vehicle. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1926 Clues Nov. 161/1 Heap, automobile. 1928 R. J. Tasker Grimhaven iii. 28 Once in a while some fellow who really did own a good car would come up to be topped, but, as a rule, I've noticed that kind never have much to say about their heaps. 1935 R. Chandler Killer in Rain (1964) 7, I got out of the Chrysler... I went back to my heap. 1957 J. Kerouac On Road (1958) 79 He gunned the heap to eighty. 1959 J. Braine Vodi xiv. 190 Bought two old heaps today. Just junk really, a '28 Chrysler and a '27 Essex. 1967 A. Hunter Gently Continental xi. 166 Stody too has driven away in his modest heap. 1969 C. F. Burke God is Beautiful, Man (1970) 56 You will be like a guy who paid no attention to his heap and it broke down in the traffic. |
2. a. A heaped measure of capacity. b. A pile or mass of definite size, varying with the commodity.
| 1674 S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 70 Usage in some places hath continued Measure by heap, although some Statutes order it by Strike. 1813 R. Kerr Agric. Surv. Berw. 448 (Jam.) In Berwickshire..four fills [of a firlot with potatoes], heaped by hand as high as they can go, called heaps, are counted as one boll. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Heap (Print.), any number of reams or quires as is set out by the warehouse keeper for the pressmen to wet is called a heap..‘The heap holds out,’ i.e. it has the full intended number of sheets. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., Heeap or Heap, a quarter of a peck measure. 1862 Miall Title Deeds Ch. Eng. 39 note, Barley and oats were titheable by the heap or cock. |
3. A great company (esp. of persons); a multitude, a host. An early sense in the Teutonic langs.; now only as in 4.
| Beowulf (Z.) 400 Þryð-lic þeᵹna heap. 971 Blickl. Hom. 81 Se halᵹa heap hehfædera and witᵹena. a 1175 Cott. Hom. 219 He ȝescop tyen engle werod oðer hapes..Her beoð niȝen anglen hapes. c 1275 Lay. 10300 Þo wes Seuarus heap mochel ibolded. c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 63/331 An hep of foules grete i-novȝ. 1340 Ayenb. 267 Ich yzeȝ to þe blyssede heape of confessours. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 309 An heep [C. hepe] of houndes at his ers, as he a lorde were. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 105 A great heep of sheep. 1535 Coverdale Ezek. xxxviii. 22 Fyre and brymstone, wil I cause to rayne vpon him and all his heape. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. iv. 16 The heapes of people, thronging in the hall, Doe ride each other, upon her to gaze. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, ii. i. 53 Among this Princely heape, if any heere..Hold me a Foe. |
4. a. Hence, in later colloquial use: A large number or quantity; a (great) deal, ‘a lot’.
| a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 53 No county in England hath such a heap of castles together. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts (1684) 116 This heap of artificial terms first entring with the French Artists. 1697 W. Dampier Voy. (1729) I. 389 The Principal of a heap of Islands. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 64 What a heap of hard names does the poor fellow call himself! 1818 Keats Lett. Wks. 1889 III. 166 A man on the coach said the horses took a ‘hellish heap o' drivin'’. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset II. xlv. 12 She lives in a big house, and has a heap of servants. 1884 Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. xxxii, He got into trouble a heap of times. |
b. pl. in same sense. Cf. the like use of ‘lots’.
| a 1547 Surrey Poems, Compl. Lover, What pleasant life, what heapes of ioy these litle birdes receue. 1622 Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer (1661) 170 For the antiquity of this Feast, heaps of Testimonies might be brought. 1856 G. J. Whyte-Melville Kate Cov. i, We're in heaps of time. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton iii. 25 He has..knocked heaps of things to smithereens. |
c. absol. and as adv. A great deal, much; a ‘lot’. (sing. and pl.) colloq.
| a 1834 Dow Serm. (Bartlett), To go to church in New York in any kind of tolerable style costs a heap a-year. 1848 G. F. Ruxton Life in Far West 223 (Farmer) He pronounced himself a heap better. 1852 Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. x. 80 It's nature I should think a heap of him. 1871 W. Alexander Johnny Gibb viii. (1873) 46 ‘Aw wudna care a great heap, gin we can 'gree aboot the waages.’ 1887 Mrs. H. Martin Amor Vincit I. 5 You will find some one somewhere you think heaps better than me. |
d. In the representation of the speech of North American Indians used adverbially and as quasi-adj.: very, very much, a great deal.
| 1832 W. Irving Jrnl. (1919) III. 180 ‘Look at these Delawares,’ say the Osages, ‘dey got short legs—no can run—must stand and fight a great heap.’ 1848 Blackw. Mag. LXIII. 719 An Indian is always a ‘heap’ hungry or thirsty—loves a ‘heap’—is a ‘heap’ brave—in fact, ‘heap’ is tantamount to very much. 1850 ‘M. Tensas’ Louisiana ‘Swamp Doctor’ 42 Whoop! whiskey lour! Injun big man, drunk heap. 1867 Harper's Mag. July 137/1 Disturb the game and you make the Indian ‘heap big mad’. 1872 ‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It (1873) xxxix. 276 ‘Heap’ is ‘Injun-English’ for ‘very much’. 1902 ― in Harper's Mag. Jan. 270/2 Billy explained..‘she heap much hungry’. 1958 B. Cerf Shake well before Using 17 President Coolidge posed later in the regalia of a heap-big chief. 1968 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 21 June (1970) 688 His favorites among the presents were..the gift wrappings, or maybe the rubber canoe that said ‘Heap Big Indian Lyn’. |
e. a heap sight (U.S. dial. and colloq.): see heap n. 4 c and sight n.1 2.
| 1874 E. Eggleston Circuit Rider i. 14 He 'lows there was a heap sight more corn. 1888 G. W. Cable Bonaventure 49 He's..a heap sight happier than us. 1906 Smart Set June 107/1, I care a heap sight too much for Ummy to let him go through what I know's comin'. 1911 R. D. Saunders Col. Todhunter x. 152 You're a heap-sight smarter man than I gave you credit for bein'. |
5. Phrases. † a. by, in heaps: in crowds, in large quantities, in great numbers. b. in (of) a heap: (of a body falling or lying) in a mass, in a state of collapse, having the appearance of a shapeless inert mass. c. † on heap (4–5 an hepe): in a heap or mass, together; = aheap. † on a heap, on heaps: in a prostrate mass, prostrate. † d. to heap: together, into one mass. e. all of († on) a heap: all in a mass falling or fallen; so † all on (upon) heaps; to strike all of († on) a heap (colloq.): to paralyze, prostrate mentally, cause to collapse; also, to knock all of a heap.
| a. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. clxxxiii. (R.), They..slewe and hanged them vpon trees by heapes. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 259 They..walked in the streetes in heapes. 1641 Milton Reform. ii. Wks. (1847) 14/1 The inhabitants..are enforced by heaps to forsake their native country. a 1700 Dryden Ceyx & Alcyone 174 The sailors run in heaps, a helpless crowd. 1799–1805 S. Turner Anglo-Sax. (1836) I. iii. i. 157 [Hengist] is affirmed..to have butchered in heaps the people who fled to the mountains and deserts. |
| b. 1840 Mrs. Browning Drama of Exile Poems 1844 I. 23 What is this, Eve? thou droppest heavily In a heap earthward. |
| c. a 1000 Wonders of Creation in Codex Exon. (Thorpe) 350 Gewiteð þon..forð mære tungol, faran on heape. c 1205 Lay. 28292 Þa heo weoren þer on hepe an hunddred þusende heðene and cristene. c 1325 Gloss. W. de Biblesw. in Wright Voc. 158 En monceus, on hepe. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 15 Gar hit on hepe to renne. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. iv. 16 He tombled on an heape, and wallowd in his gore. 1607 Shakes. Timon iv. iii. 101 When I haue laid proud Athens on a heape. 1611 Bible Ps. lxxix. 1 They haue layd Ierusalem on heapes. |
| d. a 1300 Sarmun xxxiv. in E.E.P. (1862) 5 Sei, sinful man, whi neltou leue þat al þing sal come to hepe. c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. iv. pr. vi. 105 (Camb. MS.) Puruyance embraceth alle thinges to hepe. c 1391 ― Astrol. i. §14 A litel wegge..þat streyneth alle thise parties to hepe. 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xi. 189 And ȝut were best to bee aboute and brynge hit to hepe, That alle londes loueden, and in on lawe by-leouede. 14.. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 590/26 Invicem, to geder, to hepe. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 83 Bot, micht we bring this harberie this nicht weill to heip. 1480 Caxton Descr. Brit. 12 Gadrith to hepe grete hepes of grauel. |
| e. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 223 Lord Bassianus lies embrewed heere, All on a heape. 1653 H. More Antid. Ath. i. xi. (1712) 34 That lies like a Net all on heaps in the Water. 1711 Brit. Apollo III. No. 133. 2/1 A Young Woman..struck me all on a heap. 1741 Richardson Pamela I. 205 This alarm'd us both; and he seem'd quite struck of a Heap. 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy I. xxi, The story..is long and interesting..it would be running my history all upon heaps to give it you here. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxiv, The interrogatory seemed to strike the honest magistrate, to use the vulgar phrase, all of a heap. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) III. 120 Some one who..will not be struck all of a heap like a child by the vain pomp of tyranny. 1887 Rider Haggard Jess 3 It..struck her horse upon the spine..so that it fell all of a heap on to the veldt. 1898 W. J. Locke Idols xiii, It knocked the prosecution all of a heap. 1928 Manch. Guardian Weekly 7 Sept. 183/3 Its owner's anxiety to knock the critics all of a heap. |
6. attrib. and Comb.: heap-cloud = cumulus 2; heap-flood, a heavy sea; heap-measure = heaped measure; heap-keeper, heap-stead (see quots.).
| 1561 Burgh Rec. Aberdeen (Spalding Club) I. 335 To be mesourit with ane straik mett corresponden to the hep messour. 1583 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 21 One ship..was swasht wyth a roysterus heapeflud. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Heap-keeper, a miner who overlooks the cleaning of coal on the surface. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining, Heap-stead, the entire surface works about a colliery shaft. 1889 Nature XXXIX. 26 The common cumulus or heap-cloud, which is the commonest cloud of the day-time in fine weather. |
▪ II. heap, v.
(hiːp)
Forms: see the n.
[OE. héapian, corresp. to OHG. houfôn, MHG. houfen, mod.G. haufen, häufen; deriv. of the corresp. n.]
1. trans. To make, form, gather, or cast into a heap; to pile up, amass, accumulate; to pile one thing upon another so as to form a heap. Often with up, together, on.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke vi. 38 God ᵹemet..ᵹeheapod and ofer-flowende. a 1225 Ancr. R. 314 Heo..heapeð..togederes al þet was er bileaued. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Johannes 207 He þat mony heppis ay, Is seruand þare-to nycht and day. 1483 Cath. Angl. 183/1 To Heppe, accumulare. 1538 Starkey England i. i. 6 Lyke vnto ryches hepyd in cornerys. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. vii. 47 The Titans which did make Warre against heven, and heaped hils on hight To scale the skyes. 1611 Bible Job xxvii. 16 Though he heape vp siluer as the dust. 1611 ― Ezek. xxiv. 10 Heape on wood, kindle the fire. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxvii. 198 The snow had been heaped in oblique ridges across my path. |
b. intr. for pass. (Chiefly U.S.)
| 1873 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. ii. 273 A stripe of phosphorescence heaping before you in a star-sown snow. 1890 Harper's Mag. Nov. 865/1 Fallen avalanches heap whitely at intervals below. |
2. transf. and fig. To amass, accumulate; to add many things together or one thing to another. Often with up, together. Also absol.
| c 900 [see heaping vbl. n.]. c 1200 Ormin 4331 All þiss þrinne taless hæp Iss hæpedd aȝȝ wiþþ ehhte. c 1320 R. Brunne Medit. 865 Þey wounded here, and heped harm vp on harmes. 1382 Wyclif Hab. ii. 5 He shal hepe togidere to hym alle peplis. 1529 S. Fish Supplic. Beggers (E.E.T.S.) 13 [They] haue heped to him benefice vpon benefice. 1582 N. T. (Rhem.) 2 Tim. iv. 3 According to their owne desires they will heape to themselues maisters, hauing itching eares. a 1605 Montgomerie Sonn. xxxiv. 5 More hevynes within my hairt I heep. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 260 ¶1 The Circumstances which are heaped up in my Memory. 1845 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 3 Generations of antiquaries have heaped together vast piles of facts. |
† b. refl. and intr. for refl. (or pass.) Obs.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 3548 Thes harmes so heterly hepit in his mynde. 1508 Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 334 And ȝit hatrent I hid within my hert all; Bot quhilis it hepit so huge [etc.]. 1535 Coverdale Ezek. xxxix. 17 Heape you together and come. 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 53 b, The preasse of people which heapeth together at the judgement place. |
3. trans. To furnish with a heap or heaps; to fill, load, cumber, with a heap or heaps. Also with up.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 54 Your measure..heped & fylled vnto it flowe ouer. 1530 Palsgr. 583/1 Heape this busshell as hye as you can. 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 9 §1 The mouth & hole channell of the saide hauen is so heaped and quarred with stones. 1667 Milton P.L. v. 391 With these various fruits the Trees of God Have heap'd this Table. 1790 A. Wilson Death Poet. Wks. 63 Frowning dread Stalked o'er the world, and heapt his way with dead. 1824 Macaulay Ivry v, The field is heaped with bleeding steeds, and flags, and cloven mail. |
† b. intr. for refl. and pass. Obs.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiv. ii. (1495) 465 The erthe hyght Tellus, for we take fruyte therof, and hight ops, for he hepyth wyth fruyte. c 1400 Destr. Troy 3688 The heuyn in hast hepit with cloudis. |
4. trans. To deal or bestow in heaps or large quantities. Const. upon.
| 1573–80 Baret Alv. H 303 To heape euill upon him, conglomerare mala in aliquem. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. vii. 33 Yet he perforce him held, and strokes upon him hept. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iii. ii. 175 Your great Graces Heap'd vpon me (poore Vndeseruer). 1671 Milton Samson 276 To heap ingratitude on worthiest deeds. 1861 Bright Sp. on India 19 Mar., To heap insults on his memory. |
5. To load, charge, or overwhelm (a person) with (something in large quantities).
| 1583 Stanyhurst æneis i. (Arb.) 21 Hee..sees thee Troians wyth seas and rayne water heaped. Ibid. ii. 58 Pat fals thee turret, thee Greeks with crash swash yt heapeth. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 91 ¶14 Some were..heaped by Patronage with the gifts of Fortune. 1874 Kingsley Lett. (1878) II. 427 We are received with open arms, and heaped with hospitality. |