Heap

6 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Heap \Heap\ (h[=e]p), n. [OE. heep, heap, heap, multitude, AS.
     he['a]p; akin to OS. h[=o]p, D. hoop, OHG. houf, h[=u]fo, G.
     haufe, haufen, Sw. hop, Dan. hob, Icel. h[=o]pr troop, flock,
     Russ. kupa heap, crowd, Lith. kaupas. Cf. {Hope}, in Forlorn
     hope.]
     1. A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of persons.


        [Now Low or Humorous]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The wisdom of a heap of learned men.  --Chaucer.
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              A heap of vassals and slaves.         --Bacon.
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              He had heaps of friends.              --W. Black.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A great number or large quantity of things not placed in a
        pile; as, a heap of trouble. [Now Low or Humorous]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A vast heap, both of places of scripture and
              quotations.                           --Bp. Burnet.
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              I have noticed a heap of things in my life. --R. L.
                                                    Stevenson.
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     3. A pile or mass; a collection of things laid in a body, or
        thrown together so as to form an elevation; as, a heap of
        earth or stones.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Huge heaps of slain around the body rise. --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Heap \Heap\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Heaped} (h[=e]pt); p. pr. &
     vb. n. {Heaping}.] [AS. he['a]pian.]
     1. To collect in great quantity; to amass; to lay up; to
        accumulate; -- usually with up; as, to heap up treasures.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Though he heap up silver as the dust. --Job. xxvii.
                                                    16.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. To throw or lay in a heap; to make a heap of; to pile; as,
        to heap stones; -- often with up; as, to heap up earth; or
        with on; as, to heap on wood or coal.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. To form or round into a heap, as in measuring; to fill (a
        measure) more than even full.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  heap
       n 1: a collection of objects laid on top of each other [syn: {pile},
             {mound}, {cumulus}]
       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" [syn: {batch}, {deal}, {flock}, {good
          deal}, {great deal}, {hatful}, {lot}, {mass}, {mess}, {mickle},
           {mint}, {muckle}, {peck}, {pile}, {plenty}, {pot}, {quite
          a little}, {raft}, {sight}, {slew}, {spate}, {stack}, {tidy
          sum}, {wad}, {whole lot}, {whole slew}]
       3: a car that is old and unreliable; "the fenders had fallen
          off that old bus" [syn: {bus}, {jalopy}]
       v 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" [syn: {stack}, {pile}]
       3: fill to overflow; "heap the platter with potatoes"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  275 Moby Thesaurus words for "heap":
     abundance, accord, accumulate, accumulation, administer, afford,
     agglomeration, aggregate, aggregation, allot, allow, amass,
     amassment, amount, anthill, army, assemble, auto, autocar,
     automobile, award, backlog, bag, bank, bank up, barrel, batch,
     bestow, bestow on, boat, bottle, box, budget, buggy, bunch, burden,
     bus, can, car, charge, choke, chunk, clump, cluster, clutch, cock,
     cohue, collect, collection, commissariat, commissary, communicate,
     confer, congeries, conglomeration, considerable, cord, cornucopia,
     count, crate, crowd, crush, cumulate, cumulation, deal, deal out,
     deluge, deposit, dish out, dispense, dog, dole, dole out, donate,
     dose, drift, dump, dune, embankment, extend, fill, flock, flood,
     fork out, freight, galaxy, garner, garner up, gather,
     gather into barns, gathering, gift, gift with, give,
     give cheerfully, give freely, give out, glean, gob, gobs,
     good deal, grant, great deal, group, hand out, harvest, haycock,
     haymow, hayrick, haystack, heap up, heap upon, heaps, help to,
     hide, hill, hoard, hoard up, hold, horde, host, hunk, impart,
     inventory, issue, jalopy, jam, jillion, keep, lade, larder,
     large amount, lashings, lavish, lavish upon, lay up, legion,
     let have, load, loads, lot, lots, lumber, lump, machine, mass,
     material, materials, materiel, measure, mess, mete, mete out,
     million, mint, mob, molehill, motor, motor vehicle, motorcar,
     motorized vehicle, mound, mountain, mow, much, multitude,
     munitions, not hold back, number, offer, oodles, open the purse,
     pack, pack away, panoply, parcel, part, peck, pile, pile up, piles,
     plenitude, plenty, plethora, pocket, portion, pot, pots, pour,
     power, present, press, proffer, provide, provisionment, provisions,
     put up, pyramid, quantities, quantity, quite a little, rabble,
     raft, rafts, rain, ration, rations, reap, render, repertoire,
     repertory, rick, rout, ruck, sack, save, save up, scads, scores,
     sea, secrete, serve, set aside, shell out, ship, shock, shower,
     shower down upon, sight, slew, slews, slip, small amount, snow,
     snowdrift, spare no expense, spare nothing, spate, squirrel,
     squirrel away, stack, stack up, stacks, stash, stock, stock up,
     stock-in-trade, stockpile, store, store up, stores, stow, sum,
     superabundance, supplies, supply, supply on hand, tender, thousand,
     throng, tidy sum, tons, treasure, treasure up, treasury, trillion,
     tub, voiture, vouchsafe, wad, wads, wheels, whole slew, wreck,
     yield
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  heap
       
          1.  An area of memory used for {dynamic memory
          allocation} where blocks of memory are allocated and freed in
          an arbitrary order and the pattern of allocation and size of
          blocks is not known until {run time}.  Typically, a program
          has one heap which it may use for several different purposes.
       
          Heap is required by languages in which functions can return
          arbitrary data structures or functions with {free variables}
          (see {closure}).  In {C} functions {malloc} and {free} provide
          access to the heap.
       
          Contrast {stack}.  See also {dangling pointer}.
       
          2.  A data structure with its elements partially
          ordered (sorted) such that finding either the minimum or the
          maximum (but not both) of the elements is computationally
          inexpensive (independent of the number of elements), while
          both adding a new item and finding each subsequent
          smallest/largest element can be done in O(log n) time, where n
          is the number of elements.
       
          Formally, a heap is a {binary tree} with a key in each {node},
          such that all the {leaves} of the tree are on two adjacent
          levels; all leaves on the lowest level occur to the left and
          all levels, except possibly the lowest, are filled; and the
          key in the {root} is at least as large as the keys in its
          children (if any), and the left and right subtrees (if they
          exist) are again heaps.
       
          Note that the last condition assumes that the goal is finding
          the minimum quickly.
       
          Heaps are often implemented as one-dimensional {arrays}.
          Still assuming that the goal is finding the minimum quickly
          the {invariant} is
       
             heap[i] <= heap[2*i] and heap[i] <= heap[2*i+1] for all i,
       
          where heap[i] denotes the i-th element, heap[1] being the
          first.  Heaps can be used to implement {priority queues} or in
          {sort} algorithms.
       
          (1996-02-26)
       
       

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Heap
     When Joshua took the city of Ai (Josh. 8), he burned it and
     "made it an heap [Heb. tel] for ever" (8:28). The ruins of this
     city were for a long time sought for in vain. It has been at
     length, however, identified with the mound which simply bears
     the name of "Tel." "There are many Tels in modern Palestine,
     that land of Tels, each Tel with some other name attached to it
     to mark the former site. But the site of Ai has no other name
     'unto this day.' It is simply et-Tel, 'the heap' par
     excellence."