stack
(stæk)
n. 1. a more or less orderly pile or heap.
2. a large, usu. conical, circular, or rectangular pile of hay, straw, or the like.
3. Often, stacks. a set of shelves for books ranged compactly one above the other, as in a library.
4. stacks, the part of a library in which books and other holdings are stored.
5. a number of chimneys or flues grouped together.
7. a great quantity or number.
8. a radio antenna consisting of a number of components connected in a substantially vertical series.
9. a linear list, as in a computer, arranged so that the last item stored is the first item retrieved.
10. a conical, free-standing group of three rifles placed on their butts and hooked together.
11. a group of airplanes circling over an airport awaiting their turns to land.
12. an English measure for coal and wood, equal to 108 cubic feet (3 cu. m).
13. a. a given quantity of chips that can be bought at one time, as in poker.
b. the quantity of chips held by a player at a given point.
v.t. 14. to pile, arrange, or place in a stack.
15. to cover or load with something in stacks or piles.
16. to arrange or select unfairly in order to force a desired result: to stack a jury.
17. to keep (incoming airplanes) flying in circles over an airport where conditions prevent immediate landings.
v.i. 18. to be arranged in or form a stack.
19. stack up, a. to control the flight patterns of airplanes waiting to land at an airport so that each circles at a designated altitude.
b. to compare; measure up (often fol. by against).
c. to add up.
Idioms: stack the deck, a. to arrange cards or a pack of cards so as to cheat.
b. to manipulate events, information, etc., esp. unethically, in order to achieve a desired result.
[1250–1300; (n.) Middle English stak < Old Norse stakkr haystack]
stack′er, n.
stack′less, adj.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.