stack Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an orderly pile
  2. noun (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
    plenty; great deal; pot; sight; flock; mint; slew; mountain; deal; wad; muckle; pile; lot; mickle; raft; quite a little; passel; hatful; mess; spate; heap; peck; good deal; batch; tidy sum; mass.
    • a batch of letters
    • a deal of trouble
    • a lot of money
    • he made a mint on the stock market
    • see the rest of the winners in our huge passel of photos
    • it must have cost plenty
    • a slew of journalists
    • a wad of money
  3. noun a list in which the next item to be removed is the item most recently stored (LIFO)
    push-down list; push-down stack.
  4. noun a large tall chimney through which combustion gases and smoke can be evacuated
    smokestack.
  5. noun a storage device that handles data so that the next item to be retrieved is the item most recently stored (LIFO)
    push-down storage; push-down store.
  6. verb load or cover with stacks
    • stack a truck with boxes
  7. verb arrange in stacks
    pile; heap.
    • heap firewood around the fireplace
    • stack your books up on the shelves
  8. verb arrange the order of so as to increase one's winning chances
    • stack the deck of cards

WordNet

Stack adjective
Etymology
Icel. stakkr; akin to Sw. stack, Dan. stak. Sf. Stake.
Definitions
  1. A large pile of hay, grain, straw, or the like, usually of a nearly conical form, but sometimes rectangular or oblong, contracted at the top to a point or ridge, and sometimes covered with thatch.
    But corn was housed, and beans were in the stack. Cowper.
  2. A pile of poles or wood, indefinite in quantity.
    Against every pillar was a stack of billets above a man's height. Bacon.
  3. A pile of wood containing 108 cubic feet. Eng.
  4. (Arch.) (a) A number of flues embodied in one structure, rising above the roof. Hence: (b) Any single insulated and prominent structure, or upright pipe, which affords a conduit for smoke; as, the brick smokestack of a factory; the smokestack of a steam vessel. (Computer programming) (a) A section of memory in a computer used for temporary storage of data, in which the last datum stored is the first retrieved. (b) A data structure within random-access memory used to simulate a hardware stack, as, a push-down stack.
Stack transitive verb
Etymology
Cf. Sw. stacka, Dan. stakke. See Stack, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Stacked ; present participle & verbal noun Stacking
Definitions
  1. To lay in a conical or other pile; to make into a large pile; as, to stack hay, cornstalks, or grain; to stack or place wood.

Webster 1913