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:
The stash has been kept much as it was found.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
He has made that count, with a hat-trick among his stash of pre-season goals.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
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
Meanwhile, workers can now stash up to $7,500 in specialized flexible-spending accounts, up from $5,000.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 6, 2026
“Oh. I mean, I don’t have a stash or anything,” Michael said quickly.
From "The First State of Being" by Erin Entrada Kelly
Another giveaway water voles are present are small food stashes and nibbled plants.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
A sugar-obsessed child of the 1960s, fixated on Milky Ways, Pom Poms and Mallo Cups, I’ve mostly given up sweets—even my grandchildrens’ Halloween stashes don’t interest me.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 4, 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
No gold stashes or governmental cryptocurrency reserves would save us.
From Slate ● Apr. 11, 2025
That was back when they were inseparable, when they were both into geocaching, a treasure-hunting game that uses a GPS to find hidden stashes of goodies, and the early days of Book Scavenger.
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
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
The reel was shrunken through age and frayed, but otherwise in remarkable condition for something stashed in sun-heated attics for years.
From Barron's ● Apr. 13, 2026
Playing cards that were once simply a fun part of childhood are increasingly being stashed away as pension policies, believes expert Elliot Riley-Walsh, from Anglesey.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2026
David already stashed away one of the blue watercooler-size containers for himself and his family.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
Every week or so, I stock up on a “bunch” of ripe bananas, stashing them alongside the apples and oranges in my fruit bowl, only to forget about their existence within a few short days.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 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
That approach is increasingly common, with investors stashing money away through inflation, tariff turmoil and economic worries, said Michael Shamrell, vice president of workplace thought leadership at Fidelity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
When he’s stashing the stolen paintings later in a farmhouse’s hayloft and accidentally knocks the ladder out from under him, the moment is amusing and appropriately metaphorical.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2025
They spent several sleepless nights making the copies, sorting the papers into boxes, and stashing them with friends all over Boston.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
