stash
Americanverb (used with object)
-
stashes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
stashed,
past participle, past
-
stashing
present participle
noun
-
stashes
plural
-
something put away or hidden.
a stash of gold coins buried in the garden.
-
a place in which something is stored secretly; hiding place; cache.
-
Slang. a supply of hidden drugs.
verb
noun
-
informal a secret store or the place where this is hidden
-
slang drugs kept for personal consumption
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
stashsimple
-
stashessimple
-
have stashedperfect
-
has stashedperfect
-
am stashingprogressive
-
are stashingprogressive
-
is stashingprogressive
-
have been stashingperfect progressive
-
has been stashingperfect progressive
Past
-
stashedsimple
-
had stashedperfect
-
was stashingprogressive
-
were stashingprogressive
-
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 Sun reported Meghan's half-brother Thomas Markle Jnr claimed he found a stash of images belonging to his father at his former Philippines home.
From BBC ● Oct. 25, 2026
Except my little freezer stash of homemade breakfast burritos had also dwindled to nothing, and I knew exactly what Monday morning would look like without some intervention: Wake up.
From Salon ● Sep. 22, 2026
All of these attendees were following the example set by those at the top: looking out for themselves and trying to swell their own stash.
From Slate ● Sep. 20, 2026
There’s leeway and debate on how much a person should stash in cash.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
Once Millie is sure her parents are asleep, we head to the TV room and watch a few videos of former pageants that I stole from my mom’s stash.
From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy
Another giveaway water voles are present are small food stashes and nibbled plants.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
Car factories ground to a halt, and defense manufacturers scoured the world for hidden stashes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 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
There were no secret compartments, no secret stashes, to be found.
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
So you’d be more or less treading water between your returns and inflation with your money stashed in cash equivalents.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 28, 2026
Then he eyed the canvas tote bag where I’d stashed a notepad and some audio gear.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
After a tipoff, intelligence services and police found two handguns and ammunition stashed in a hideout in the forest, Dobrindt said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 21, 2026
The gold was stashed in a bag under the stone cellar surface below the 1890s villa built for the brewery’s onetime owner, Theophilus Van Assche, said local police officer Katrijn Braem.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026
Anya rolled over and reached under her mattress, where she had stashed the dragon scale.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
To see where this generation is stashing its cash, researchers at Cerulli Associates analyzed Federal Reserve data to map out the financial assets of people under 30.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026
I bring it home, use up some parts — maybe a wing, both thighs and a bit of rib meat — to make a few go-to recipes before stashing the chicken in my fridge.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026
Many protect themselves by stashing tens of billions of dollars abroad or hidden under mattresses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 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
For months he’d been stashing away bits and pieces of machinery, because he never knew what he might need.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
