all of a heap

adverb

Into a sudden state of collapse or astonishment.

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

adverball of a heap (not comparable)
  1. colloquialidiomaticnot comparableInto a sudden state of collapse or astonishment.

    1916, Algernon Blackwood, The Dance of Death, first published in The Quest: A Quarterly Review What caught me all of a heap was that million-dollar sense of beauty, youth, and happiness.

    2 more examples

    I walked straight in expecting to find her waiting for me in the front room, — I was struck all of a heap when I found she wasn’t there.

    1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle

    All of a sudden he remembered the spooks, and it knocked him all of a heap.

    2012, Joseph Lewis French, Masterpieces of Mystery, page 218
Cite this entry
APA

all of a heap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/all%20of%20a%20heap

MLA

“all of a heap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/all%20of%20a%20heap. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “all of a heap,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/all%20of%20a%20heap.

Source: all of a heap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.