Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to challenge.

1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 278: Well, you just let anybody who hasn’t friends in New York, just stack up against McGovern and his crew, that wants to; but I tell you they’ll soon find themselves where the dogs won’t bite em.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 6 Feb. 2/7: he had the sense to see he was stacked up against a combination [...] an’ stood no show.

2. to meet.

1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 97: Stacked up against all the pretty girls [...] and the swagger married women.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 16: He was the best example of an all-round invalid I ever stacked up against.

3. (also stack) to emerge, to develop, to maintain, to appear as it should; also in negative phr. that doesn’t/don’t stack up, that isn’t logical, that fails to reach a standard.

1897		A.H. Lewis Wolfville 32: ‘Howdy, Wilkins?’ says Doc [...] ‘how’s things stackin’ up?’.
1908		B. Fisher ‘A. Mutt’ [comic strip] How are they stackin’ up, Nap?
1913		S.F. Bulletin 29 Mar. 29: From the way the White Sox stacked up, one might have suspected that they were innoculated with the ‘jazz’ during their stay in the Valley of the Moon.
1920		R. Lardner Big Town 180: How do you and Daley stack up?
1922		Adair Co. News 3 Jan. 7/2: But just you look at the way things are stackin’ up.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 651: Say, how does this horse Sugar Candy stack up in the next?
1940		W. Irish After-Dinner Story 18: Since there’d been only one shot fired out of the gun, and no other gun was found, that don’t stack up to much.
1942		Commonweal XXXVII 256: Nightmare is the kind of a chase thriller that keeps you on the edge of your chair. At its end all the explanada doesn’t stack up very well or amount to much.
1946		R.L. Bellem ‘Latin Blood’ in Speed Detective Aug. 🌐 I know it sounds like a hack script [...] But I take my oath that’s how it stacks.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 58: I gave him a report on how things stacked up in Peardale.
1960		C. Cooper Jr Scene (1996) 101: It seemed to Bertha that Edna was stacking up the same way she had.
1986		P. McBroom Third Sex 32: But it doesn’t stack up quite right.
2002		I. Compton Paco: the Apache tracker 76: I hope you don’t have to stand trial for murder of the clerk, son, but it don’t stack up too good for you.
2008		B. Maitland Verge Practice 42: I know she’s convinced herself it’s the only explanation, and I can’t blame her for that, but it doesn’t stack up.

4. to compare with; usu. as stack up to/against.

1902		Ade Girl Proposition 128: In order to prevent Competition, the Hot-Looker usually selected a Pal who did not stack up to any extent as a Beauty Queen.
1904		‘Hugh McHugh’ I’m from Missouri 13: It’s a mighty fat wad that doesn’t feel ashamed of itself when it stacks up to Uncle Peter’s rake-off.
1918		Tensas Gaz. (St Joseph, LA) 1 Mar. 3/1: ‘A Christmas without punch is like sinking a hole to bedrock with nary a pay streak.’ ‘Stack up on that for a high cyard,’ approved Big Jim.
1950		Business Week 22 Apr. 22/3: For it tells him the productivity of his store, how one department stacks up against another [DA].
1963		H.S. Thompson letter 1 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 366: I’ve been down to Uruguay, Buenos Aires and Paraguay [...] but they don’t stack up to Brazil.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 171: Holding back telling him how he stacked up against Joe Speaker.
1995		B. Jones Farming Game 44: It isn’t too bad a tractor either, even if it doesn’t stack up with my A John Deere.

5. used of an indivual, to prove useful or dependable.

2013

K. Sampson Killing Pool 166: Derek Lambert — no fixed address. I don’t see him stacking up [...] He’s an addict. he can’t be sure what he saw.