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

How do the two full-size electric pickup trucks stack up? —Charles Singh, USA Today, 3 June 2026

When these pressures stack up and mental health care is out of reach, difficult circumstances can quickly become crisis situations. —Jennifer Stolo, Washington Post, 2 June 2026

But that incident, during an otherwise successful flight, doesn't quite stack up against New Glenn's explosive mishap, Curlee said. —Josh Dinner, Space.com, 1 June 2026

On performance, Nvidia didn’t have a single statistic or chart to share, and Aevermann wouldn’t answer questions about how the RTX Spark family stacks up to chips from Intel, AMD, Apple, and Qualcomm, saying Nvidia will have more to share closer to launch. —Sean Hollister, The Verge, 1 June 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