stack

A stack is a tidy pile, like the stack of books on your nightstand or the stack of pancakes on your plate at breakfast. You can also use stack as a verb meaning "to arrange in piles."

If you stack the dollar bills you earned from your lemonade stand, you'll eventually have a stack of dollar bills. Unlike the similar word pile, stack implies a neat, orderly bundle, rather than a messy, haphazard one. When someone "stacks the deck," they cheat in order to achieve the outcome they want—sometimes literally, by arranging a deck of cards unfairly.

Definitions of stack
  1. noun
    an orderly pile
    see moresee less
    types:
    hayrick, haystack, rick
    a stack of hay
    haycock
    a small cone-shaped pile of hay that has been left in the field until it is dry enough to carry to the hayrick
    type of:
    agglomerate, cumulation, cumulus, heap, mound, pile
    a collection of objects laid on top of each other
  2. noun
    a storage device that handles data so that the next item to be retrieved is the item most recently stored (LIFO)
    synonyms: push-down storage, push-down store
    see moresee less
    type of:
    memory device, storage device
    a device that preserves information for retrieval
  3. noun
    a list in which the next item to be removed is the item most recently stored (LIFO)
    synonyms: push-down list, push-down stack
    see moresee less
    type of:
    list, listing
    a database containing an ordered array of items (names or topics)
  4. noun
    a large tall chimney through which combustion gases and smoke can be evacuated
    synonyms: smokestack
    see moresee less
    types:
    funnel
    (nautical) smokestack consisting of a shaft for ventilation or the passage of smoke (especially the smokestack of a ship)
    type of:
    chimney
    a vertical flue that provides a path through which smoke from a fire is carried away through the wall or roof of a building
  5. noun
    (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
    synonyms: batch, deal, flock, good deal, great deal, hatful, heap, lot, mass, mess, mickle, mint, mountain, muckle, passel, peck, pile, plenty, pot, quite a little, raft, sight, slew, spate, tidy sum, wad
    see moresee less
    types:
    barrage, deluge, flood, flurry, inundation, torrent
    an overwhelming number or amount
    haymow
    a mass of hay piled up in a barn for preservation
    type of:
    large indefinite amount, large indefinite quantity
    an indefinite quantity that is above the average in size or magnitude
  6. verb
    arrange in stacks
    “stack your books up on the shelves”
    synonyms: heap, pile
    see moresee less
    types:
    rick
    pile in ricks
    cord
    stack in cords
    type of:
    arrange, set up
    put into a proper or systematic order
  7. verb
    load or cover with stacks
    “stack a truck with boxes”
    see moresee less
    type of:
    lade, laden, load, load up
    fill or place a load on
  8. verb
    arrange the order of so as to increase one's winning chances
    “stack the deck of cards”
    see moresee less
    type of:
    arrange, set up
    put into a proper or systematic order
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