Link Centre Dictionary

heap

UK/hiːp/ US/heːp/ fairly common
noun (3) verb (3)

noun

1.

a collection of objects laid on top of each other

Synonyms
2.

(often followed by `of'') a large number or amount or extent

  • “a batch of letters”
  • “a deal of trouble”
  • “a lot of money”
  • “he made a mint on the stock market”
  • “it must have cost plenty”
Synonyms
3.

a car that is old and unreliable

  • “the fenders had fallen off that old bus”
Synonyms

verb

1.

bestow in large quantities

  • “He heaped him with work”
  • “She heaped scorn upon him”
2.

arrange in stacks

  • “heap firewood around the fireplace”
  • “stack your books up on the shelves”
Synonyms
3.

fill to overflow

  • “heap the platter with potatoes”

Origin

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)).

Phrases

  • all of a heap
  • ash heap of history
  • at the top of the heap
  • compost heap
  • dung heap
  • dust heap of history
  • garbage heap of history
  • Heap Bridge
  • heap coals of fire on someone's head
  • heap insult on injury
  • heap on
  • heap up

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.