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 Englishstak < Old Norsestakkr haystack; (v.) Middle Englishstakken, derivative of the v.
Related formsstack·er, nounstack·less, adjectivere·stack, verb (used with object)un·stack, adjective, verb
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.
stack
v.
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.
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.
Measure up, equal, as in Their gift doesn't stack up against mine. This usage alludes to piling up one's chips at poker, and comparing them to those of the other players. [Early 1900s]
2
Make sense, seem plausible, as in Her explanation just doesn't stack up. Also see add up, def. 2.
