stack

[ stak ]

/ stæk /

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See synonyms for: stack / stacked / stacks / stacker 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.

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His boss, whom he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

His boss, who he admires, is waiting to meet with him about the big project.

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Idioms about stack

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.

OTHER WORDS FROM stack

stacker, nounstackless, adjectivere·stack, verb (used with object)un·stack, adjective, verb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use stack in a sentence

When the draft approached, Zwit had to do the menial but necessary job of alphabetizing stacks of 500 draft cards.
Baseball told Kim Ng no (and no, and no) before it finally said yes|Candace Buckner|November 19, 2020|Washington Post
Another way to improve efficiency is to look for integration opportunities in your marketing stack.
How a well-oiled marketing operations machine drives business forward|Sponsored Content: Workfront|November 12, 2020|Search Engine Land
Each of those channels is associated with a different part of the marketing technology stack.
Building connections between siloed channels, technologies and teams|Sponsored Content: Integrate|November 11, 2020|Search Engine Land
Built by Limbut and colleagues, the instrument’s sensor is composed of stacks of graphene sheets.
A new portable device can reveal a chili pepper’s heat|Erin Garcia de Jesus|November 10, 2020|Science News

No matter the score, no matter the size of the stack of papers Bharti had to grade or the magnitude of some faraway death toll, a daughter and her father could pause long enough to lament missed tackles or poor ball security or a dud of a game plan.
Football is back in Happy Valley. The coronavirus never left.|Kent Babb|October 30, 2020|Washington Post
It has the advantage of keeping the straw under more perfect control than the common stacker.
Farm Engines and How to Run Them|James H. Stephenson
The successive belts may then be put on one at a time, until the stacker belt is put on after its pulleys have been oiled.
Farm Engines and How to Run Them|James H. Stephenson
Especially note which belts are to run crossedusually the main belt and the stacker belt.
Farm Engines and How to Run Them|James H. Stephenson
A stacker web belt may be laced by turning the ends up and lacing them together flat at right angles to rest of belt.
Farm Engines and How to Run Them|James H. Stephenson
In moving machine with wind stacker in place, care should be taken to see that it rests in its support before machine moves.
Farm Engines and How to Run Them|James H. Stephenson

British Dictionary definitions for stack

stack

/ (stæk) /

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 forms of stack

stackable, 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

Scientific definitions for stack

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.

Other 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

stack

Idioms about stack

Origin of stack

OTHER WORDS FROM stack

Words related to stack

How to use stack in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for stack

Derived forms of stack

Word Origin for stack

Scientific definitions for stack

Other Idioms and Phrases with stack