heap

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)).

noun

1. A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.
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
   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. May 9, 2012, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in the Guardian
3. A great number or large quantity of things.
   a vast heap, both of places of scripture and quotations 1679, Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England
   I have noticed a heap of things in my life. 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, Will o' the Mill
4. (computing) A data structure consisting of trees in which each node is greater than all its children.
5. (computing) Memory that is dynamically allocated.
   You should move these structures from the stack to the heap to avoid a potential stack overflow.
6. (colloquial) 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. May 12 1991, “Kidnapped!”, in Jeeves and Wooster, Series 2, Episode 5
7. (colloquial) A lot, a large amount
   Thanks a heap!

verb

1. (transitive) To pile in a heap.
   He heaped the laundry upon the bed and began folding.
2. (transitive) 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. 1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act I, scene II, verses 40-42
3. (transitive) 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. January 12 2022, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3

adv

1. (possibly offensive) very; representing broken English stereotypically or comically attributed to Native Americans
   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. 1980, Joey Lee Dillard, Perspectives on American English, page 417
   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. 2004, John Robert Colombo, The Penguin Book of Canadian Jokes, page 175