stack
pronunciation
How to pronounce stack in British English:
UK [stæk]
How to pronounce stack in American English:
US [stæk]
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- Noun:
- an orderly pile
- (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
- a list in which the next item to be removed is the item most recently stored (LIFO)
- a large tall chimney through which combustion gases and smoke can be evacuated
- a storage device that handles data so that the next item to be retrieved is the item most recently stored (LIFO)
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- Verb:
- load or cover with stacks
- arrange in stacks
- arrange the order of so as to increase one's winning chances
Word Origin
- stack (v.)
- early 14c., "to pile up (grain) into a stack," from stack (n.). Meaning "arrange (a deck of cards) unfairly" (in stack the deck) is first recorded 1825. Stack up "compare against" is 1903, from notion of piles of poker chips (1896). Of aircraft waiting to land, from 1941. Related: Stacked; Stacking.
- stack (n.)
- c. 1300, "pile, heap, or group of things," from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse stakkr "haystack" (cognate with Danish stak, Swedish stack "heap, stack"), from Proto-Germanic *stakon- "a stake," from PIE *stog- (cognates: Old Church Slavonic stogu "heap," Russian stog "haystack," Lithuanian stokas "pillar"), variant of root *steg- (1) "pole, stick" (see stake (n.)). Meaning "set of shelves on which books are set out" is from 1879. Used of the chimneys of factories, locomotives, etc., since 1825. Of computer data from 1960.
Example
- 1. Please stack the materials up here .
- 2. As I hefted a stack of glasses through the steamer , she lit up .
- 3. One chinese village had a stack of rabbit meat , having skinned the creatures for fur .
- 4. Once the idols were seated , a woman appeared with a stack of white gym towels .
- 5. It will take up less space ( and look neater ) than a stack of papers .