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Heap vs Knot - What's the difference?

heap | knot | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between heap and knot

is that heap is a crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people while knot is a looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops.

As verbs the difference between heap and knot

is that heap is to pile in a heap while knot is to form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots.

heap

English

(wikipedia heap)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • a heap of vassals and slaves
  • * W. Black
    • He had heaps of friends.
  • A pile or mass; a collection of things laid in a body, or thrown together so as to form an elevation.
    • a heap of earth or stones
  • * Dryden
    • Huge heaps of slain around the body rise.
  • A great number or large quantity of things.
  • * Bishop Burnet
    • a vast heap , both of places of scripture and quotations
  • * Robert Louis Stevenson
    • I have noticed a heap of things in my life.
  • (computing) A data structure consisting of trees in which each node is greater than all its children.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2012 , date=May 9 , author=Jonathan Wilson , title=Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Every break seemed dangerous and Falcao clearly had the beating of Amorebieta. Others, being forced to stretch a foot behind them to control Arda Turan's 34th-minute cross, might simply have lashed a shot on the turn; Falcao, though, twisted back on to his left foot, leaving Amorebieta in a heap , and thumped in an inevitable finish – his 12th goal in 15 European matches this season.}}

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Verb

    (heap)
  • To pile in a heap.
    • He heaped the laundry upon the bed and began folding.
  • To form or round into a heap, as in measuring.
  • * 1819 , , Otho the Great , Act I, scene II, verses 40-42
    • Cry a reward, to him who shall first bring
    News of that vanished Arabian,
    A full-heap’d helmet of the purest gold.
  • To supply in great quantity.
    • They heaped praise upon their newest hero.

    Derived terms

    * heap up

    Anagrams

    * * * ----

    knot

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) cnotta, from (etyl) , compare Latin nodus and its Romance successors.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A looping of a piece of string or of any other long, flexible material that cannot be untangled without passing one or both ends of the material through its loops.
    • Climbers must make sure that all knots are both secure and of types that will not weaken the rope.
  • (of hair, etc) A tangled clump.
    • The nurse was brushing knots from the protesting child's hair.
  • A maze-like pattern.
  • * Milton
    • Flowers worthy of paradise, which, not nice art / In beds and curious knots , but nature boon / Poured forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain.
  • (mathematics) A non-self-intersecting closed curve in (e.g., three-dimensional) space that is an abstraction of a knot (in sense 1 above).
    • A knot can be defined as a non-self-intersecting broken line whose endpoints coincide: when such a knot is constrained to lie in a plane, then it is simply a polygon.
        A knot in its original sense can be modeled as a mathematical knot''' (or link) as follows: if the knot is made with a single piece of rope, then abstract the shape of that rope and then extend the working end to merge it with the standing end, yielding a mathematical '''knot'''. If the knot is attached to a metal ring, then that metal ring can be modeled as a trivial '''knot''' and the pair of '''knots''' become a link. If more than one mathematical ' knot (or link) can be thus obtained, then the simplest one (avoiding detours) is probably the one which one would want.
  • A difficult situation.
    • I got into a knot when I inadvertently insulted a policeman.
  • * South
    • A man shall be perplexed with knots , and problems of business, and contrary affairs.
  • The whorl left in lumber by the base of a branch growing out of the tree's trunk.
    • When preparing to tell stories at a campfire, I like to set aside a pile of pine logs with lots of knots , since they burn brighter and make dramatic pops and cracks.
  • Local swelling in a tissue area, especially skin, often due to injury.
    • Jeremy had a knot on his head where he had bumped it on the bedframe.
  • A protuberant joint in a plant.
  • Any knob, lump, swelling, or protuberance.
  • * Tennyson
    • With lips serenely placid, felt the knot / Climb in her throat.
  • The point on which the action of a story depends; the gist of a matter.
    • the knot of the tale
  • (engineering) A node.
  • A kind of epaulet; a shoulder knot.
  • A group of people or things.
  • * Shakespeare
    • his ancient knot of dangerous adversaries
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • As they sat together in small, separate knots , they discussed doctrinal and metaphysical points of belief.
  • * 1968, Bryce Walton, Harpoon Gunner , Thomas Y. Crowell Company, NY, (1968), page 20,
    • He pushed through knots of whalemen grouped with their families and friends, and surrounded by piles of luggage.
  • A bond of union; a connection; a tie.
  • * Shakespeare
    • with nuptial knot
  • * Bishop Hall
    • ere we knit the knot that can never be loosed
    Related terms
    * get knotted * Gordian knot * granny knot * knot theory * knotty * red knot * reef knot * slipknot * unknot * Windsor knot

    Verb

    (knott)
  • To form into a knot; to tie with a knot or knots.
    • We knotted the ends of the rope to keep it from unravelling.
  • * Tennyson
    • as tight as I could knot the noose
  • To form wrinkles in the forehead, as a sign of concentration, concern, surprise, etc.
    • She knotted her brow in concentration while attempting to unravel the tangled strands.
  • To unite closely; to knit together.
    • (Francis Bacon)
  • (obsolete, rare) To entangle or perplex; to puzzle.
    • Synonyms
    * (form into a knot) bind, tie * (form wrinkles in forehead) knit
    Antonyms
    * (form into a knot) loosen, unbind, unknot, untie

    See also

    * * braid * bruise * hickey * knit * loop * plait * tangle * tie * weave

    Etymology 2

    From the practice of counting the number of knots in the log-line (as it plays out) in a standard time. Traditionally spaced at one every 1/120th of a mile.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (nautical) A unit of speed, equal to one nautical mile per hour.
    • Cedric claimed his old yacht could make 12 knots .
  • (slang) A nautical mile (incorrectly)
    • See also
    *

    Etymology 3

    Supposed to be derived from the name of (King Canute), with whom the bird was a favourite article of food. See the species epithet canutus .

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • One of a variety of shore birds; the red-breasted sandpiper (variously Calidris canutus or ).

    • See also

    * (Red Knot)

    Anagrams

    * ----