heap

(hēp)

1. A group of things placed or thrown, one on top of the other: a heap of dirty rags lying in the corner.

2. often heaps Informal A great deal; a lot: We have heaps of homework tonight.

3. Slang An old or run-down car.

tr.v. heaped, heap·ing, heaps

1. To put or throw in a pile: heaped the clothes on the bed.

2. To fill completely or to overflowing: heap a plate with vegetables.

3. To bestow in abundance or lavishly: heaped praise on the rescuers.

[Middle English, from Old English hēap.]

Synonyms: heap, mound, pile¹, stack
These nouns denote a group or collection of things lying one on top of the other: a heap of old newspapers; a mound of boulders; a pile of boxes; a stack of firewood.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	heaps - a large number or amount; "made lots of new friends"; "she amassed stacks of newspapers" dozens, gobs, lashings, loads, lots, oodles, rafts, scads, scores, slews, stacks, tons, wads, piles large indefinite amount, large indefinite quantity - an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude
Adv.	1.	heaps - very much; "thanks heaps" colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech

Translations

bunkevis

heaps

[hiːps]

A. NPL (= lots) heaps of → montones de, un montón de
you've had heaps of opportunities → has tenido montones or un montón de oportunidades
heaps of times → muchísimas veces
we have heaps of time → tenemos tiempo de sobra

B. ADV → muchísimo
heaps better → muchísimo mejor

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

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References in classic literature

At the very top was a level plain upon which were heaps of rock that at first glance seemed solid.

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Those who had axes and had spent their fury on the movables, chopped and tore down the doors and window frames, broke up the flooring, hewed away the rafters, and buried men who lingered in the upper rooms, in heaps of ruins.

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Whilst he was doing this,I caught sight of a knot of young lasses, who were sitting near us on the grass surrounded by heaps of flowers which they were forming into garlands.

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And as bees cannot live when their stings are broken that was the end of the black bees, and they lay scattered thick about the Woodman, like little heaps of fine coal.

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It would be difficult to explain why and whither ants whose heap has been destroyed are hurrying: some from the heap dragging bits of rubbish, larvae, and corpses, others back to the heap, or why they jostle, overtake one another, and fight, and it would be equally difficult to explain what caused the Russians after the departure of the French to throng to the place that had formerly been Moscow.

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Such a man came upon him, like a ghost, at noon in the July weather, as he sat on his heap of stones under a bank, taking such shelter as he could get from a shower of hail.

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Gradually the guineas, the crowns, and the half-crowns grew to a heap, and Marner drew less and less for his own wants, trying to solve the problem of keeping himself strong enough to work sixteen hours a-day on as small an outlay as possible.

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WHEN this happened, the Flopsy Bunnies went across the field to a rubbish heap, in the ditch outside Mr.

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Then he led her to a chamber in his palace where there was a great heap of straw, and gave her a spinning-wheel, and said, 'All this must be spun into gold before morning, as you love your life.' It was in vain that the poor maiden said that it was only a silly boast of her father, for that she could do no such thing as spin straw into gold: the chamber door was locked, and she was left alone.

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A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum Alley.

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The Abyssins have three different ways of putting a criminal to death: one way is to bury him to the neck, to lay a heap of brambles upon his head, and to cover the whole with a great stone; another is to beat him to death with cudgels; a third, and the most usual, is to stab him with their lances.

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He could then use both hands, and had soon heaped into the car more than five hundred pounds of stones, which enabled both the doctor and Kennedy, in their turn, to get out.

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