all of a heap
1
8.1
- idiom
- Informal
- After the argument, she stood there all of a heap, struggling to gather her thoughts.
Examples
-
I feel struck all of a heap by what's happened.
Fiction book (1993) -
The sudden news left him feeling all of a heap, unsure of what to do next.
-
When the teacher announced the pop quiz, the students were thrown all of a heap.
Synonyms
5
1.6
Something that is untidy and not in order
4
7.3
In a confused, messy way with no order
1
5.2
With much hurry and disorder
1
9.9
In a confused, hurried way with no order
Antonyms
How Organized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun 'heap' (a pile, a messy mass) gives a clear metaphorical cue so a learner could infer a sense of being in a mess or collapsed together, but the precise idiomatic usage ('all of a heap' meaning suddenly, disorganized, or shocked) is not fully predictable from the literal parts and involves a conventionalized phrasing. Because the meaning is a metaphorical extension of the constituents rather than strictly compositional, it should be classified as partially transparent rather than fully transparent or fully opaque.
Etymology
All of a heap paints a picture of someone or things falling together into one heap — a messy pile — all at once. So it means ending up 'suddenly' collapsed or 'in disorder'.