▪ I. stacker, n.1
(ˈstækə(r))
[f. stack v.1 + -er1.]
1. One who builds up a stack or pile.
| 1757 E. Griffith Lett. Henry & Frances (1767) I. 249, I am, at present, sitting in the midst of a large field of barley, which I reaped the other day, and am taking care of the binders and stackers. 1834 Brit. Husb. I. 494 The common number of workpeople is five hay-makers to each mower, including tedders, loaders, pitchers, and stackers. 1880 New Virginians I. 180 None of the Virginians working for him were good stackers. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 234 Stacker, one who stacks coals, etc. |
2. a. (See quot. 1875); more widely, any machine for raising individual items or bulk material and depositing them on a stack or pile; also, a stacker crane.
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Stacker, a machine adapted for delivering straw from the threshing machine on to the stack, or hay from a wagon on to a stack or into a loft. 1887 Sci. Amer. 14 May 314/1 A hay stacker and loader. 1905 Contemp. Rev. July 98 There..the thresher and stacker has its home and works with long surges of droning sound which I love to hear. 1922 G. F. Zimmer Mech. Handling & Storing (ed. 3) xxxviii. 654 A similar stacker is illustrated in Fig. 954; it is composed of a slat conveyor, and is for handling cases. 1950 W. Staniar Plant Engin. Handbk. xx. 1417 A number of different types of portable elevators, stackers, or tiering machines are made with the lifting mechanism either motor or hand operated... Portable stackers are made for the handling of smaller units. 1979 Belt Conveyors for Bulk Materials (Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Assoc., U.S.) (ed. 2) i. 7 Belt conveyors, with their stackers and reclaimers, have become the only practical means for large-scale stockpiling and reclaiming of such bulk materials as coal, ore, and taconite pellets. |
b. A part of a data-processing machine in which punched cards are deposited in a stack after having passed through the machine.
| 1962 in Gloss. Terms Automatic Data Processing (B.S.I.) 90. 1969 P. B. Jordain Condensed Computer Encycl. 82 A card stacker ensures the correct sequencing of emerging cards. 1971 J. T. Murray Introd. Computing vii. 126 The input hopper provides the cards which are sorted into any of the six available stacker pockets. |
3. Special Comb.: stacker crane, a hoist running on a fixed horizontal track for stacking and retrieving pallets or the like.
| 1959 W. Staniar Plant Engin. Handbk. (ed. 2) xxviii. 32 The makers of the stacker crane claim that it may be employed for safe stacking of materials to greater heights than with other forms of equipment. 1979 Computers in Shell (Shell Internat. Petroleum Co.) 6 A computer-controlled stacker crane takes the pallet and places it in one of the thousands of pallet spaces in the racks, the location being recorded by the computer. |
▪ II. stacker, n.2 dial.
(ˈstækə(r))
Also 7 pl. stakers, 9 stacher.
[f. stacker v.]
1. pl. = staggers: see stagger n.1 2.
| 1610 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 188 For letting the grissell mare blode for the stakers and giving her a drincke, xiiij{supd}. 1828 [Carr] Craven Gloss., Stackers, the staggers, a disease in horses, etc. |
2. A reeling or tottering movement of the body, = stagger n.
| 1870 J. K. Hunter Life Studies xliv. 271 An attempt to ease the foot produced a stacher. 1877 ‘Saxon’ Galloway Gossip 358 He gied a great stacher and fell spraucheling on the floor. |
▪ III. stacker, v. Obs. exc. dial.
(ˈstækə(r))
Forms: 3–6 staker, 4–6 stakker, 5 stakar, (stakeryn), stakyr, 5–6 stakir, 6 stakkir, 5–7, 9 (dial.) stacker (Sc. dial. 8–9 stacher, 9 staucher).
[a. ON. stakra to stagger; freq. of staka to push, to stagger. The Sc. form stacher (ˈstaxər) is difficult to account for. stagger v. is an altered form of stacker.]
1. intr. To totter, reel in one's gait, to stagger.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 24032, I stakerd sua i moght not stand. c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 12377 Arthur was stoneyd, stakered, & stynt, But ȝut fel he nought for þat dynt. c 1385 Chaucer L.G.W. 2687 She rist ȝit vp & stakerith her & ther. c 1400 Song of Roland 730 Then euery of them brest vpon other, that þer stedes stakered right euyn þer. c 1440 York Myst. xxx. 84 For scho may stakir in þe strete But scho stalworthely stande. 1535 Coverdale Ps. cvi. 27 They stacker like a droncken man. c 1550 Bale K. Johan 1997 Of terryble deathe thu wylt stacker in the plashes. 1597 G. Harvey Trimming Nashe Wks. (Grosart) III. 57 He eate the poyson, and presently (drunkard-like) stackered vp and downe, reeling backward and forward. 1597 Montgomerie Cherrie & Slae 303, I stakkerit at the windilstrayis. 1785 Burns Death & Dr. Hornbook iii, I stacher'd whyles but yet took tent ay To free the ditches. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Stacker, to stagger. |
b. transf.
| 1597 J. King On Jonas (1618) 287 When hee had shipt himselfe, the vessell that bare him, stackered like a drunken man to and fro. |
† 2. To stammer, hesitate in speech. Obs.
| 1440 [see stackering vbl. n.]. 1538 Elyot Dict., Offensator, He that stakereth in redinge, as if he were not perfyte in reding. Ibid., Titubo, To stacker in speking or going, as a man being drunke or sycke. |
† 3. fig. a. To be insecure or in danger of ruin. b. To waver, to hesitate mentally in a state of indecision. Obs.
| 1402 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 40 Every state stakerth unstable in him silfe. 1526 Tindale Rom. iv. 20 He stackered nott at the promes off God thorowe vnbelefe. 1533 More Apol. xxii. 134 b, Calanius perceuyng them begyn in the mater somwhat to staker and staye, persuaded them [etc.]. 1549 Coverdale Erasm. Par., Jas. 32 He..whiche stack⁓reth not to auenture in hys onely sonne whome he loued so syngularly. |