stack
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /stæk/
rhymes: -æk
Forms: form: stacks
Etymology: From Middle English stack, stacke, stakke, stak, from Old Norse stakkr (“a barn; haystack; heap; pile”), from Proto-Germanic *stakkaz (“a barn; rick; haystack”).
The data structure sense is a calque of Dutch stapel, introduced by Edsger W. Dijkstra. Cognate with Icelandic stakkur (“stack”), Swedish stack (“stack”), Danish stak (“stack”), Norwegian stakk (“stack”). Related to stake and sauna.
Senses: examples: text: But corn was housed, and beans were in the stack.
ref: c. 1790, William Cowper, The Needless Alarm:
topics: heading
glosses: A pile.
A large pile of hay, grain, straw, or the like, larger at the bottom than the top, sometimes covered with thatch.
examples: text: Please bring me a chair from that stack in the corner.
topics: heading
glosses: A pile.
A pile of similar objects, each directly on top of the last.
examples: text: There was againſt euery Pillar, a Stacke of Billets, aboue a Mans Height;
ref: 1631, Francis [Bacon], “III. Century. [Experiments in Consort Touching the Reflexion, of Sounds.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC, paragraph 249, page 67:
topics: heading
glosses: A pile.
A pile of poles or wood, indefinite in quantity.
topics: heading
glosses: A pile.
A pile of wood containing 108 cubic feet. (~3 m³)
examples: text: She performed appallingly on standard neurological tests, which are, as Sacks perceptively notes, specifically designed to deconstruct the whole person into a stack of 'abilities'.
ref: 1997, Guy Claxton, Hare brain, tortoise mind: why intelligence increases when you think less:
text: “We said, 'Maybe we could come up with a couple of characters doing jokes,'” Correll recalled in 1972. “We had a whole stack of jokes we used to do in these home talent shows
ref: 2005, Elizabeth McLeod, The Original Amos 'n' Andy: Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll and the 1928-1943 Radio Serial, McFarland, →ISBN, page 26:
text: Going back to an earlier question, which I think is very important, this question of how you use skills. It is no good having a great stack of skills in a workplace if the employer does not utilise them properly
ref: 2007, Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Education and Skills Committee, Post-16 skills: ninth report of session 2006-07, Vol. 2: Oral and written evidence, The Stationery Office →ISBN, page 42
topics: heading
glosses: A pile.
An extensive collection
examples: text: With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon, river packet, the black smoke already pouring from her stacks.
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, “A Lady in Company”, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: Long before Shap platform showed up around a corner and the two arms on the gradient post drooped in both directions at once, Duchess of Buccleuch's amiable throbbing purr at the stack had become a fierce freight-engine bark, as she resolutely dragged at her enormous load.
ref: 1949 January and February, F. G. Roe, “I Saw Three Englands–1”, in Railway Magazine, page 12:
text: The leading engine was one of the Class Y6 2-8-8-2 compound articulateds, [...] The stack noise of one of these great brutes slogging up a grade was quite unforgettable.
ref: 1961 July, J. Geoffrey Todd, “Impressions of railroading in the United States: Part Two”, in Trains Illustrated, page 419:
glosses: A smokestack.
topics: computing
engineering
heading
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: In computing.
A linear data structure in which items inserted are removed in reverse order (the last item inserted is the first one to be removed).
examples: text: When the microprocessor decodes the JSR opcode, it stores the operand into the TEMP register and pushes the current contents of the PC ($00 0128) onto the stack.
ref: 1992, Michael A. Miller, The 68000 Microprocessor Family: Architecture, Programming, and Applications, page 47:
topics: computing
engineering
heading
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: In computing.
A stack data structure stored in main memory that is manipulated during machine language procedure call related instructions.
examples: text: A TCP/IP stack is a library or set of libraries or of OS drivers that take care of networking.
topics: computing
engineering
heading
mathematics
natural-sciences
networking
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: In computing.
An implementation of a protocol suite (set of protocols forming a layered architecture).
synonyms: protocol stack
examples: text: A Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) stack is a configuration of four popular products for hosting websites.
ref: 2016, John Paul Mueller, AWS For Admins For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 323:
topics: heading
glosses: In computing.
A combination of interdependent, yet individually replaceable, software components or technologies used together on a system.
synonyms: technology stack
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A generalization of schemes in algebraic geometry and of sheaves.
topics: geography
geology
natural-sciences
glosses: A coastal landform, consisting of a large vertical column of rock in the sea.
examples: text: You took me to your library and kissed me in the stacks.
ref: 1994, The Magnetic Fields, “Swinging London”, in Holiday:
qualifier: library
glosses: Compactly spaced bookshelves used to house large collections of books.
examples: text: They paid him a stack of money to keep quiet.
glosses: A large amount of an object.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: A pile of rifles or muskets in a cone shape.
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: The amount of money a player has on the table.
topics: heading
glosses: In architecture.
A number of flues embodied in one structure, rising above the roof.
topics: heading
glosses: In architecture.
A vertical drainpipe.
examples: text: "You've got to go all out in a race or you don't get a good time," he said. "But going all out means that you have a few stacks."
ref: 1989 April 9, Ian Watt, “Canberra skier wins medals”, in The Canberra Times, retrieved 07 Aug 2022:
text: Fan-shot footage of Bieber’s big stack (not a euphemism) sees the pop singer trying to adjust his pants during a concert in the Canadian city of Saskatoon on Thursday night, 16th June, before an audible “THWACK” can be heard as he falls off the stage.
ref: 2016 June 19, Tom Williams, “Watch Justin Bieber Stack It, Fall Off Stage While Fixing His Pants”, in Music Feeds, Evolve Media, retrieved 17 Nov 2020:
glosses: A fall or crash, a prang.
topics: bodybuilding
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A blend of various dietary supplements or anabolic steroids with supposed synergistic benefits.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A holding pattern, with aircraft circling one above the other as they wait to land.
examples: text: I've got 107 Golden Branches, but the stack size is 20 so they're taking up 6 spaces in my inventory.
topics: video-games
glosses: The quantity of a given item which fills up an inventory slot or bag.
Derived terms: word: blow one's stack
word: cactus stack
word: call stack
word: chimney stack
word: deep stack
word: effective stack size
word: flare stack
raw_tags: of flare tower
word: font stack
word: full-stack
word: full stack
word: half stack
word: holding stack
word: keep it a stack
word: libo stack
word: non-stack
word: progressive stack
word: protocol stack
word: saguaro stack
word: sea-stack
word: sea stack
word: short stack
word: smash the stack
word: smokestack
word: soil stack
word: solution stack
word: spaghetti stack
word: speed stack
word: stack-based
word: stack chips
word: stack effect
word: stack frame
word: stack-guard
word: stack interchange
word: stack light
word: stack machine
word: stack process
word: stack rank
word: stack ranking
word: stack room
word: stack smashing
word: stacks of wax
word: stacks on
word: stacks on the mill
word: stack talk
word: stack trace
word: stack truck
word: stack-upon-the-kill
word: stack-upo'-the-kill
word: swear on a stack
word: swear on a stack of Bibles
word: talent stack
word: technology stack
word: tech stack
word: vent stack
word: weight stack