Forms: see the sb. [f. STACK sb.]
1. trans. To pile (corn, fodder, etc.) into a stack; to make a stack of, to pile (something) up in the form of a stack.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Bibbesw., in Wright, Voc., 154. [Dehors la graunge vos blez tassez glossed,] stacke thi corn.
c. 1460. Promp. Parv. (Winch.), 464. Stakkyn, arconiso.
1483. Cath. Angl., 358/2. To Sstakke, arconizare.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 132. Stack pease vpon houell abrode in the yard.
1592. Shuttleworths’ Acc. (Chetham Soc.), 74. Stackinge turffes towe dayes iijd.
1657. Billingsly, Brachy-Martyrol., II. viii. 211. Being in Harvest stacking of his corn.
1797. J. Curr, Coal Viewer, 11. I have adopted this mode of conveying coals above the ground also for stacking them.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Jan., 99. I do not think it proceeds from the crop yielding beyond what it had the appearance of when stacked.
1833. Loudon, Encycl. Archit., § 1584. The boards to be prepared and stacked (horsed) by the 1st of September.
1859. Geo. Eliot, Adam Bede, vi. At the far end, fleeces of wool stacked up.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., x. The port which Tom employed the first hour after his return in stacking carefully away in his cellar.
1894. Fenn, Real Gold, xxv. 314. Something serious was evidently going on by the spot where the packages had been stacked, for there were shouts and cries.
2. absol. and intr. To put corn or hay into stacks; to make a stack or stacks.
a. 1722. Fountainhall, Decis., I. 548. The Lords found little matter of riot in the master’s hindering his tenant to stack in that barn-yard.
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Nov., 479. Some loss has occurred, from stacking too hastily.
1883. M. P. Bale, Saw-Mills, 237. If it [timber] is to be used for fencing posts and rails, &c., split at once and stack where there is a free circulation of air.
1894. Hall Caine, Manxman, III. v. 137. It was her father stacking in the haggard.
3. trans. To make a pile of (weapons, etc.) by leaning one against another. (Cf. PILE v.2 1 b.)
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind., xx. (1844), I. 144. The leader of the party with his arms stacked behind him.
1887. Times, 9 April, 5/5. The men [military cyclists], having dismounted and stacked their machines, were formed into line.
4. To stack up: to pile materials on, to make up (a fire).
1892. Rider Haggard, Nada, ix. 67. We stacked up the fire.
5. To fill with stacks of.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., VI. xxvi. Whose Hands did stack The studded Orbs with Stars.
1913. M. Frewen, in 19th Cent., Jan., 67. Calcutta was stacked with the rupees of 1907 still unissued.
