Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Stack?

\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. {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.
\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.
Many people who realised the importance of stacks and queues independently have given other names to these structures: stacks have been called push-down lists, reversion storages, cellars, dumps, nesting stores, piles, last-in first-out ("LIFO") lists, and even yo-yo lists!