Find the word definition

The Collaborative International Dictionary
to blow one's stacks

Stack \Stack\ (st[a^]k), n. [Icel. stakkr; akin to Sw. stack, Dan. stak. Cf. Stake.]

  1. A large and to some degree orderly 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. Hence: An orderly pile of any type of object, indefinite in quantity; -- used especially of piles of wood. A stack is usually more orderly than a pile

    Against every pillar was a stack of billets above a man's height.
    --Bacon.

  3. Specifically: A pile of wood containing 108 cubic feet.

  4. Hence: A large quantity; as, a stack of cash. [Informal]

  5. (Arch.)

    1. A number of flues embodied in one structure, rising above the roof. Hence:

    2. 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.

  6. (Computer programming)

    1. A section of memory in a computer used for temporary storage of data, in which the last datum stored is the first retrieved.

    2. A data structure within random-access memory used to simulate a hardware stack; as, a push-down stack.

  7. pl. The section of a library containing shelves which hold books less frequently requested.

    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.

    to blow one's stacks to become very angry and lose one's self-control, and especially to display one's fury by shouting.