stack up

See also: stackup

English

Pronunciation

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Verb

stack up (third-person singular simple present stacks up, present participle stacking up, simple past and past participle stacked up)

1. (transitive) To put into a stack.

   Stack up the boxes.

2. (intransitive) to pile up; to accumulate.
3. (idiomatic, transitive) To put a group of abstract things together.

   to stack up memories

4. Often followed by against or among: to compare with (something); to measure up.
   • 1939, Milwaukee Journal, issue of 7th September, page 3:

     "How Populations Stack Up Among Nations At War" (name of the article)

   • 1973, The Paper Chase, 01:17:10

     This is a great outline. Fantastic. If yours doesn't stack up, you won't get a chance to look at it.

   • 2018 June 18, Phil McNulty, “Tunisia 1 – 2 England”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 21 April 2019:

     [Raheem] Sterling's attitude and ability is never in doubt, never ducking a challenge or dropping his intensity, but the numbers are simply not stacking up at England level.

   • 2021 February 24, Richard Clinnick, “Decarbonisation key to retaining financial support”, in RAIL, number 925, page 18:

     Meaney said the rail industry needs to be honest with itself when discussing major investment projects, and to ask if the business case stacks up.

Synonyms

• (put into a stack): heap up, pile up, stack; see also Thesaurus:pile up
• (accumulate): accrue, add up; see also Thesaurus:accumulate

Translations

to put into a stack

• German: aufstapeln (de), stapeln (de)
• Russian: нагроможда́ть (ru) impf (nagromoždátʹ), нагромозди́ть (ru) pf (nagromozdítʹ), скла́дывать (ru) impf (skládyvatʹ), сложи́ть (ru) pf (složítʹ)

accumulate

• German: läppern (de) (reflexive), ansammeln (de) (reflexive, often impersonal with subject etwas, and with the topic and/or the adverb da as an adverbial)
• Japanese: 積もる (ja) (つもる, tsumoru), 溜まる (ja) (たまる, tamaru), 重なる (ja) (かさなる, kasanaru)
• Korean: 쌓이다 (ko) (ssaida)
• Russian: нака́пливаться (ru) impf (nakáplivatʹsja), накопи́ться (ru) pf (nakopítʹsja)

to compare with something

• German: gleichziehen (de) (often used with mit (etwas, jemandem)), ein Vergleich sein (chiefly in the negative, often used with zu (etwas, jemandem)), im Vergleich dastehen (often used with zu (etwas, jemandem))
• Russian: соотве́тствовать (ru) n (sootvétstvovatʹ), быть сравни́мым (bytʹ sravnímym)
• Vietnamese: chồng (vi)

Anagrams

• tack-ups, tacks up, upstack