stack

[stak]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR stack ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a more or less orderly pile or heap: a precariously balanced stack of books; a neat stack of papers.

a large, usually conical, circular, or rectangular pile of hay, straw, or the like.

Often stacks. a set of shelves for books or other materials ranged compactly one above the other, as in a library.

stacks, the area or part of a library in which the books and other holdings are stored or kept.

a number of chimneys or flues grouped together.

smokestack.

a vertical duct for conveying warm air from a leader to a register on an upper story of a building.

a vertical waste pipe or vent pipe serving a number of floors.

Informal. a great quantity or number.

Radio. an antenna consisting of a number of components connected in a substantially vertical series.

Computers. a linear list arranged so that the last item stored is the first item retrieved.

Military. a conical, free-standing group of three rifles placed on their butts and hooked together with stacking swivels.

Also called air stack, stackup. Aviation. a group of airplanes circling over an airport awaiting their turns to land.

an English measure for coal and wood, equal to 108 cubic feet (3 cu. m).

Geology. a column of rock isolated from a shore by the action of waves.

Games.

a given quantity of chips that can be bought at one time, as in poker or other gambling games.
the quantity of chips held by a player at a given point in a gambling game.

verb (used with object)

to pile, arrange, or place in a stack: to stack hay; to stack rifles.

to cover or load with something in stacks or piles.

to arrange or select unfairly in order to force a desired result, especially to load (a jury, committee, etc.) with members having a biased viewpoint: The lawyer charged that the jury had been stacked against his client.

to keep (a number of incoming airplanes) flying nearly circular patterns at various altitudes over an airport where crowded runways, a low ceiling, or other temporary conditions prevent immediate landings.

verb (used without object)

to be arranged in or form a stack: These chairs stack easily.

Verb Phrases

stack up,

Aviation.to control the flight patterns of airplanes waiting to land at an airport so that each circles at a designated altitude.
Informal.to compare; measure up (often followed by against): How does the movie stack up against the novel?
Informal.to appear plausible or in keeping with the known facts: Your story just doesn't stack up.

Idioms

blow one's stack, Slang. to lose one's temper or become uncontrollably angry, especially to display one's fury, as by shouting: When he came in and saw the mess he blew his stack.

stack the deck,

to arrange cards or a pack of cards so as to cheat: He stacked the deck and won every hand.
to manipulate events, information, etc., especially unethically, in order to achieve an advantage or desired result.

Origin of stack

1250–1300; (noun) Middle English stak < Old Norse stakkr haystack; (v.) Middle English stakken, derivative of the v.

Related formsstack·er, nounstack·less, adjectivere·stack, verb (used with object)un·stack, adjective, verb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for stack

mountain, pyramid, heap, bundle, sheaf, load, stockpile, pile, drift, hill, mass, bank, mound, hoard, cock, assemblage, pack, amass, accumulate, rick

Examples from the Web for stack

Contemporary Examples of stack

She suggested that Gregory stack newspapers on his desk to give the set an intimate, coffeehouse feel.
David Gregory's 'Meet the Press' Eviction Exposed in Washingtonian Takedown
Lloyd Grove
December 23, 2014
Place the stack of phyllo dough sheets on a cutting board and cover it with a slightly damp towel.
The Barefoot Contessa’s Tasty Trip to Paris
Ina Garten
November 27, 2014
Jimbo and I sat next to each other, Indian style, and leaned against the stack of black Hefty bags and electronics.
I Shot Bin Laden
Elliot Ackerman
November 16, 2014
And what that left was the jewelry and the stack of black chips and the girl who worked nights for a living.
The Stacks: Pete Dexter on What It’s Like to Lose the Knack of Having Fun
Pete Dexter
September 20, 2014
It will have to stack up against everything else the medium has to offer.
Gamers Want to Game: Video Games Aren't Blockbuster Movies
Alec Kubas-Meyer
August 28, 2014

Historical Examples of stack

Or, you goin' to get her a stack of every colour and let her play with you?
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
"That's quite a stack of chips you're carrying," Sperry observed.
The Fortune Hunter
Louis Joseph Vance
"I have got to the corner of the stack, and as well as I can judge you must be just round it," he said.
Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood
George MacDonald
You'll have to send Andrew to build up the stack again—that's all.
Ranald Bannerman's Boyhood
George MacDonald
Owens leapt from the stack, and the men caught up their guns.
Chronicles of Border Warfare
Alexander Scott Withers

British Dictionary definitions for stack

stack

noun

an ordered pile or heap

a large orderly pile of hay, straw, etc, for storage in the open air

(often plural) library science compactly spaced bookshelves, used to house collections of books in an area usually prohibited to library users

a number of aircraft circling an airport at different altitudes, awaiting their signal to land

a large amounta stack of work

military a pile of rifles or muskets in the shape of a cone

British a measure of coal or wood equal to 108 cubic feet

See chimney stack, smokestack

a vertical pipe, such as the funnel of a ship or the soil pipe attached to the side of a building

a high column of rock, esp one isolated from the mainland by the erosive action of the sea

an area in a computer memory for temporary storage

verb (tr)

to place in a stack; pileto stack bricks on a lorry

to load or fill up with piles of somethingto stack a lorry with bricks

to control (a number of aircraft waiting to land at an airport) so that each flies at a different altitude

stack the cards to prearrange the order of a pack of cards secretly so that the deal will benefit someone

Derived Formsstackable, adjectivestacker, noun

Word Origin for stack

C13: from Old Norse stakkr haystack, of Germanic origin; related to Russian stog

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for stack

c.1300, "pile, heap, or group of things," from Old Norse stakkr "haystack" (cf. Danish stak, Swedish stack "heap, stack"), from Proto-Germanic *stakkoz, from PIE *stognos- (cf. Old Church Slavonic stogu "heap," Russian stog "haystack," Lithuanian stokas "pillar"), from root *steg- "pole, stick" (see stake (n.)). Meaning "set of shelves on which books are set out" is from 1879. Used of the chimneys of factories, locomotives, etc., since 1825.

early 14c., "to pile up grain," from stack (n.). Meaning "arrange unfairly" (in stack the deck) is first recorded 1825. Stack up "compare against" is 1903, from notion of piles of poker chips (1896). Related: Stacked; Stacking.

stack in Science

stack

[stăk]

An isolated, columnar mass or island of rock along a coastal cliff. Stacks are formed by the erosion of cliffs through wave action and are larger than chimneys.

Idioms and Phrases with stack

stack

In addition to the idioms beginning with stack

stack the cards
stack up

also see:

blow one's top (stack)
cards are stacked
needle in a haystack
swear on a stack of bibles