Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Stack
Stack (stăk), 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.