1864. National Review, p. 535. I think it’s the novels that make my
girls so heady.
Heady-whop, subs. (streets).—A person with a preternaturally large
head. (A corruption of whopping-head (q.v.).)
Healtheries, subs. (common).—The Health Exhibition, held at South
Kensington. [Others of the series were nick-named The Fisheries, The
Colinderies, The Forestries, etc.]
Heap, subs. (colloquial).—A large number; lots; a great deal.
1371. Chaucer, Boke of the Duchesse, iii., 295 (1888, Minor Poems,
Skeat, p. 23). Of smale foules a gret hepe.
1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, i., 23/575 (Riverside Press). The
wisdom of an heepe of lerned men.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxxv. I sha’n’t see her
again, and she wont hear of me for I don’t know how long; and she
will be meeting heaps of men.
1885. Punch, 4 July, p. 4. ‘Splendid sight,’ he goes on, ‘heaps of
people—people you don’t see anywhere else—and lots of pretty
girls.’
1888. Texas Siftings, 20 Oct. He did not encroach on the domain of
familiarity, but he looked a heap.
1892. Gunter, Miss Dividends, xi. Every one here would do a heap
for Bishop Tranyon’s darter.
Adv. (American).—A great deal.
1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 223. He pronounced himself a
heap better.
All of a heap, phr. (old: now colloquial).—Astonished; confused; taken
aback; flabbergast (q.v.); and (pugilists’) ‘doubled up.’
1593. Shakspeare, Titus Andronicus, ii., 4. Lord Bassianus lies
embrewed here, all on a heap.
1775. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VIII., ch. ii. My good landlady was
(according to vulgar phrase) struck all of a heap by this relation.
1775. Sheridan, Duenna, ii., 2. That was just my case, too, Madam;
I was struck all of a heap for my part.
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. xxiv. The interrogatory seemed to strike
the honest magistrate, to use the vulgar phrase, all of a heap.
1832. Egan, Book of Sports, s.v. All of a heap and all of a lump,
unmistakably doubled up by a smasher.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick. ‘And what’s the lady’s name?’ says the
lawyer. My father was struck all of a heap. ‘Blessed if I know,’
said he.
1888. J. McCarthy and Mrs. Campbell-Praed, The Ladies’ Gallery, ch.
xiv. The idea seemed to take him all of a heap.
1891. Scots’ Mag., Oct., p. 321. Spinks and Durward were struck, as
we may say, all of a heap, when they fully realised that Folio had
disappeared.
Heaped, adj. (racing).—1. Hard put to it; floored (q.v.).
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 158. They’ve all heard
of Blackton’s accident, and fancy we’re fairly heaped for someone
to ride.