stack up

verb

stacked up; stacking up; stacks up

intransitive verb

1

: to add up

Cars were beginning to stack up behind the bus.

2

: to be in a particular state or situation

Here's how things stack up today.

3

: measure up, compare

—usually used with against

How does he stack up against the other job candidates?

Synonyms of stack up

• compare (with)
• measure up (to)

Examples of stack up in a Sentence

those newspapers have been stacking up in the basement since we moved here

Recent Examples on the Web

Plane outlets are often slow, loose, or even nonexistent, and when delays stack up, a dead phone becomes a real problem—not just an inconvenience. —Samantha Leal, Travel + Leisure, 18 Apr. 2026

Swinging at better pitches with more intent is obviously easier said than done, especially when the zeros on the scoreboard start to stack up. —Justice Delos Santos, Mercury News, 15 Apr. 2026

Here’s how chicken and turkey stack up, gram for gram. —Jillian Kubala, Health, 15 Apr. 2026

In Season 4, the challenges don’t quite stack up, and there’s a reluctance on the creators’ part to really sink their teeth into the whirlwind of producing late-night TV. —Ben Travers, IndieWire, 9 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1896, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for stack up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup

Kids Definition

stack up

verb

: measure up sense 2, compare

see how you stack up against the champion