Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(orig. US) very, much; usu. as a heap.

a.1834		Dow Sermon in Bartlett Americanisms (1877) 282: To go to church in New York in any kind of tolerable style costs a heap a-year .
1848		G.F. Ruxton Life in the Far West (1849) 32: He pronounced himself a heap better.
1853		Woodville Republican (MS) 2 Feb. 1/2: He neber talk a great deal, / But den he tink a heap.
1862		in T.P. Lowry Stories the Soldiers Wouldn’t Tell (1994) 37: I together with several other officers went over to Petersburg, got drunk and f--ked out. We staid two days and nights, and you ought to have seen me going to bed with a gal. I tell you it is a heap better than sleeping with a man.
1872		‘Mark Twain’ Roughing It 218: In their broken English they said, ‘By’m-by, heap water!’.
1876		Arizona Sentinel (Yuma, AZ) 23 Dec. 3/2: The Sioux have a new motto. ‘White man big smart; he furnish brains. Red man heap brave; he knock ’em out’.
1883		Abilene Reflector (KS) 6 Sept. 8/1: ‘Heap much of big fools they would be to bite at such bait’.
1898		Binstead & Wells A Pink ’Un and a Pelican 260: I could do with the ‘crabs’ as well; they’re a ’eap better’n mine is.
1903		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Atavism of John Tom Little Bear’ in Rolling Stones (1913) 39: All a Indian can say is ‘heap good’ and ‘paleface die’.
1903		Grey & King [perf. Florrie Forde] ‘Anona’ 🎵 She must marry ‘heap big chief’, sweet Anona hid her grief.
1908		Eve. Star (DC) 20 Dec. 31/3: ’Twould have been a heap easier to chuck ’em in the water.
1914		Amer. Mag. 77 June 31–5: You got money, no go jail, you no quit. I heap sabe. Bimeby you see.
1924		H.L. Wilson Professor How Could You! 100: Heap big Injun!
1931		E. Pound letter 27 Dec. in Paige (1971) 237: The continuation can be called Poetry, Second Series, or new series, if that hackneyed term is still heap big mumbo on the lake shore.
1941		A. Gurney Bluey & Curley 23 May [synd. cartoon strip] Hey Rastus, you tellum me get drinky heap big fire-water.
1956		R. Ellison ‘A Coupla Scalped Indians’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 265: Me go make heap much pow-wow at stinkydog carnival.
1967		in S. Harris Hellhole 126: She a heap better off than my grandma.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 123: Too right, heap big medicine man.
1999		Indep. Rev. 23 June 13: This is a heap more fun.
2007		D. McDonald Luck in the Greater West (2008) 229: I like her. She’s heaps cool.
2014		me-stepmums-too-fuckin-hot-mate at www.fakku.net 🌐 I’m heaps sorry.