heap

B2 · Upper Intermediate Plural noun Informal

n. a lot of something, often used to describe a large quantity.

n. an informal designation for a great number or large quantity of something.

“The new project has brought a heap of trouble for the management team.”

“Despite the glowing reviews, the film faced a heap of criticism regarding its historical inaccuracies and pacing.”

B2 · Upper Intermediate Countable noun Informal

n. a car or vehicle that is old, broken, and in very bad condition.

n. a colloquial term for a dilapidated or unreliable vehicle or piece of machinery.

“I can't believe he still drives that old heap to work every day.”

“The mechanic laughed when he saw the rusted heap I had towed into his garage for repairs.”

C1 · Advanced Countable noun Computing Technical

n. a part of a computer's memory used for storing data while a program is running.

n. an area of memory used for dynamic allocation, where blocks are allocated and freed in an arbitrary order.

“The application crashed because it ran out of space on the heap.”

“Efficient memory management is crucial when allocating large objects on the heap to avoid fragmentation and performance bottlenecks.”

B2 · Upper Intermediate

v. to put things into a large pile.

v. to arrange or throw things into a heap; often used figuratively with praise or criticism.

“She heaped more wood onto the fire to keep the room warm.”

“The critics proceeded to heap praise upon the young actress for her nuanced performance in the independent drama.”

C2 · Proficiency Archaic · Dialect

adj. a word used to mean 'very' or 'a lot', but it can be offensive to some people.

adj. an adverbial use meaning 'very' or 'much', often associated with stereotypical depictions of Native American speech.

“In the old movie, the character said he was heap big hungry.”

“The script was criticized for its use of 'heap' as an intensifier, a linguistic trope that modern audiences find reductive and offensive.”