▪ I. ˈheaping, vbl. n.
[f. heap v. + -ing1.]
1. The action of the verb heap; making into a heap; accumulation. Also concr.
| c 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. v. xiv. [xiii.] (1890) 440 In heapunge eowerre niðerunge. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 235/2 Hepynge, cumulacio. 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. lxv. 7 In that unmeasurable heaping of the earth. a 1631 Donne in Select. (1840) 30 This better resurrection is a heaping euen of that fulness. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 549 ¶1 Grown old in the heaping up of riches. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xx. 156 Circular mounds or heapings-up of the crumbled limestone. |
2. Comb. † heaping figure, a rhetorical figure in which epithets, etc. are heaped up. Obs.
| 1589 Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xix. (Arb.) 243 The Latines called it Congeries and we the heaping figure. |
▪ II. heaping, ppl. a. U.S.
[f. heap v.]
Of a spoonful: heaped. Also fig. mounting up.
| 1838 Congress. Globe June 470/2 App., The amount of money..is a very high and heaping price. 1868 L. M. Alcott Lit. Women xi, Amy..took a heaping spoonful, choked..and left the table precipitately. 1908 Smart Set June 25/1 Aunt Natica waddled off..to fetch Thorndyke a heaping portion of the dulce. 1965 C. D. Eby Siege of Alcázar (1966) xi. 221 He had just been served a heaping ration of rice and beans, a special treat. |