stack up

verb

stacked up; stacking up; stacks up

intransitive verb

1

: to add up : total

2

: measure up, compare

—usually used with against

Synonyms

• 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

All in all, this stacks up as our favorite UFC 318 betting promo. —Tyler Everett, MSNBC Newsweek, 20 July 2025

And as the discourse around it keeps stacking up, what started as a silly turn of phrase has devolved into an incomprehensible mess that’s preventing people from noticing the much more insidious shift around them. —Ct Jones, Rolling Stone, 11 July 2025

Jade Gao | Afp | Getty Images As President Donald Trump intensifies his trade war to stack up tariffs on many Asian countries that produce the goods that consumers in the U.S. rely on, low-cost Asian retail upstarts Temu and Shein may yet find a way back to big success in the U.S. market. —Lori Ann Larocco, CNBC, 10 July 2025

How does the number of partial vetoes this year stack up against previous budget cycles? —Hope Karnopp, jsonline.com, 7 July 2025

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