English Dictionary: heap | by the DICT Development Group |
5 results for heap | |
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Heap \Heap\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Heaped}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Heaping}.] [AS. he[a0]pian.] 1. To collect in great quantity; to amass; to lay up; to accumulate; -- usually with up; as, to heap up treasures. Though he heap up silver as the dust. --Job. xxvii. 16. 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. | |
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
Heap \Heap\, n. [OE. heep, heap, heap, multitude, AS. he[a0]p; akin to OS. h[?]p, D. hoop, OHG. houf, h[?]fo, G. haufe, haufen, Sw. hop, Dan. hob., Icel. h[?]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] The wisdom of a heap of learned men. --Chaucer. A heap of vassals and slaves. --Bacon. He had heaps of friends. --W.Black. 2. A great number or large quantity of things not placed in a pile. [Now Low or Humorous] A vast heap, both of places of scripture and quotations. --Bp. Burnet. I have noticed a heap of things in my life. --R. L. Stevenson. 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. Huge heaps of slain around the body rise. --Dryden. | |
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]: | |
heap 1. 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. 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." |