Stack (?), a. [Icel. stakkr; akin to Sw. stack, Dan. stak. Sf. Stake.]

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 of arms Mil., a number of muskets or rifles set up together, with the bayonets crossing one another, forming a sort of conical self-supporting pile.

 

© Webster 1913.


Stack, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stacked (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Stacking.] [Cf. Sw. stacka, Dan. stakke. See Stack, n.]

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.

To stack arms Mil., to set up a number of muskets or rifles together, with the bayonets crossing one another, and forming a sort of conical pile.

 

© Webster 1913.