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heap

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heap


  5  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Heap  \Heap\,  n.  [OE.  heep,  heap,  heap,  multitude,  AS  he['a]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  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Heap  \Heap\,  v.  t.  [imp.  &  p.  p.  {Heaped};  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. 
 
  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  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  heap 
  n  1:  a  collection  of  objects  laid  on  top  of  each  other  [syn:  {pile}, 
  {mound}] 
  2:  (often  followed  by  `of')  a  large  number  or  amount  or  extent: 
  "a  batch  of  letters";  "a  deal  of  trouble";  "a  lot  of 
  money";  "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  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [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." 
 




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