Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also stack it) to cease from an action; thus stacked adj. [SE stack, to pile up one’s chips in a casino].

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 64/1: At it we went, drinking and playing until I had to ‘stack it’ for want of funds.
1879		Cincinnati Enquirer 7 Sept. 10/7: Stow it and stack it, means the same as the above [i.e. cheese it!].
1954		(con. 1940s) T.A.G. Hungerford Sowers of the Wind 218: That got me stacked, at that.
1990		T. Winton Human Torpedo 34: The Guidance Officer’s smile went away. Oops, thought Lockie, that stacks it.

2. (US campus) to break up a college room [one ‘stacks’ the furniture].

1919

Van Loan ‘The National Commission Decides’ in Score by Innings (2004) 299: A practical humourist conceived the idea of letting himself into a friend’s room and ‘stackin the furniture.’.

3. to hide away; thus stacked adj., hidden away.

1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 181: Stack.–To hide or conceal, as loot. From ‘stach’ or ‘stash’ as corruptions of cache, to hide; or possibly a corruption of ‘stack,’ a pile or orderly collection, in the sense that loot is carefully placed together before being hidden away.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.
1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 180: [He] was believed by the police to have a lot of it stacked away.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 819: stack – To hide or conceal, as loot.

4. to put something aside.

1984		‘Derek Raymond’ He Died with His Eyes Open 33: ‘We’ll stack that one.’ ‘What do you mean, stack?’ ‘Put it on one side.’.
1997		T. Winton Lockie Leonard, Legend (1998) 123: I stacked my hog.

5. (US black gang/campus, also stack chips, stack paper) to accumulate and/or save money.

1989		Above the Law ‘Living Like Hustlers’ 🎵 I max and tax and relax and stack G’s.
1991		L. Bing Do or Die (1992) 32: What does a fifteen-year-old do with that kind of money? ‘Spend it. And stack it. [...] Spend about five hundred bucks and stack like three.’.
1996		UGK ‘One Day’ 🎵 Time to stack some paper think I’m a do it quick.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Stack chips (verb) To save money; to be thrifty.
2007		Brand Nubian ‘Brand Nu Hustle’ 🎵 Now I be the prince, stackin green like the Grinch.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Ya, if you was stackin’ yo’ shit instead of putting it around your neck and up your nose, you’d be EATIN’ EATIN’, B.
2014		Wiley ‘From the Outside’ 🎵 Five bills for a grime beat, that's real / [...] / I’mma stack till I get mils.
2017		Jamaica Obs. 26 Aug. 🌐 Joey Bada tweeted [...] ‘seeing double, stacking triple’ [...] hip hop slang for cashing in.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 115: Living in some cruddy block, stacking paper, spending it on ice and designer garms.

6. (US gang) to display one’s gang sign.

2001		(con. 1990s) in J. Miller One of the Guys 84: ‘We listen to tapes and stuff, stackin’ and all this stuff’.
2012		www.dailymail.co.uk 28 Oct. 🌐 [photo caption] Members of the Bloods gang make their hand symbol. Sometimes gang members talk to each other using just symbols. This is known as ‘stacking’.

7. (N.Z. prison) to plant an incriminating item to create false ‘evidence’.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 175/2: stack v. to create false evidence by planting an incriminating item, e.g. at the crime scene.

8. (US prison) of guards, to attack aggressively.

2023

Rayman & Blau Riker’s 174: You gotta go in dynamic, you gotta stack. [...] Don’t move, you’ll get shot.

9. see stack up v.¹ (3)