stash
Americanverb (used with object)
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stashes,
present (3rd person singular)
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stashed,
past participle, past
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stashing
present participle
noun
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stashes
plural
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something put away or hidden.
a stash of gold coins buried in the garden.
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a place in which something is stored secretly; hiding place; cache.
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Slang. a supply of hidden drugs.
verb
noun
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informal a secret store or the place where this is hidden
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slang drugs kept for personal consumption
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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stashsimple
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stashessimple
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have stashedperfect
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has stashedperfect
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am stashingprogressive
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are stashingprogressive
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is stashingprogressive
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have been stashingperfect progressive
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has been stashingperfect progressive
Past
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stashedsimple
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had stashedperfect
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was stashingprogressive
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were stashingprogressive
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had been stashingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stash
Explanation
When you stash something, you stow it away to use it later. Your little brother might stash his Halloween candy under his bed, for example. Use the word stash as a verb that means "hoard" or "stockpile," or as a noun — a pirate's secret pile of gold doubloons can be called a stash, and so can the collection of overdue library books you've got piled beside your bed. The verb version of stash was originally a late 1700's criminals' slang word meaning "conceal." It may have come from a combination of stow and cache.
Vocabulary lists containing stash
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
One ballerina selected from her stash a leotard whose gray velour later read as metallic silver under the studio lights during her grand adagio.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026
Now he faces a different dilemma: When should he dip into his precious stash?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
“It’s holding back PC builds and smartphone builds. Cloud customers are paying premiums,” and presumably not to stash memory components in warehouses, he noted.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
Or stash it out of sight in a drawer.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
He cherished them like a little stash of gold in a corner of his mind.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
Another giveaway water voles are present are small food stashes and nibbled plants.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
The average Chinese household stashes about one-third of its income, while Americans save less than 5%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 28, 2026
And according to recent data, central banks’ gold stashes have topped their holdings of Treasuries, $36.8 trillion versus $31.6 trillion.
From Barron's ● Jan. 23, 2026
Hunter, who also stashes party tricks like leaping out of a swimming pool, grew up in the rolling greens of central Mississippi.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2025
There were no secret compartments, no secret stashes, to be found.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
But you don’t need to be fluent in markets jargon or have thousands of dollars stashed away to get started.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
The nibbled plants are stashed in small piles amongst the reeds by the water voles to eat later.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
Extras should be stashed in the freezer and typically last up to four months.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026
Marc Hershberg has about 13 coupons stashed away in a drawer in his apartment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
This is also where Dad stashed the antibiotics—various vials and pill containers in Ziploc bags.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Arriving early and stashing the car was key for Yuen and her companion.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2026
Videos on social media show people stashing their boxes in their pantries or taking their boxes to the movies, the beach and on flights.
From Salon ● May 17, 2026
At Navy Federal, Long is already seeing members stashing more money in checking accounts in preparation for covering costs.
From MarketWatch ● May 12, 2026
He opened an account with the aim of stashing away $50,000 to eventually buy futures contracts and lock in cheaper, longer-term prices, as bigger roasters do.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 29, 2026
I carried the matryoshka dolls into the guest bedroom, where Radar was carefully stashing Santas into a dresser.
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
