"stack the deck" meaning in English

See stack the deck in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-us-stack the deck.ogg Forms: stacks the deck [present, singular, third-person], stacking the deck [participle, present], stacked the deck [participle, past], stacked the deck [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} stack the deck (third-person singular simple present stacks the deck, present participle stacking the deck, simple past and past participle stacked the deck)
  1. (figurative, intransitive) To give an unfair advantage to somebody. Tags: figuratively, intransitive Synonyms: cheat
    Sense id: en-stack_the_deck-en-verb-GRBuF225 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "stacks the deck",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stacking the deck",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stacked the deck",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stacked the deck",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "stack the deck (third-person singular simple present stacks the deck, present participle stacking the deck, simple past and past participle stacked the deck)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 June 13, Bryce Covert, “The Demise of Toys 'R' Us Is a Warning”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Private equity can stack the deck in other ways, too. Firms can direct businesses they own to buy other companies and then act as broker on the deals, reaping transaction fees.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To give an unfair advantage to somebody."
      ],
      "id": "en-stack_the_deck-en-verb-GRBuF225",
      "links": [
        [
          "unfair",
          "unfair"
        ],
        [
          "advantage",
          "advantage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, intransitive) To give an unfair advantage to somebody."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "cheat"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-us-stack the deck.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cd/En-us-stack_the_deck.ogg/En-us-stack_the_deck.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/En-us-stack_the_deck.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "stack the deck"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "stacks the deck",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stacking the deck",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stacked the deck",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "stacked the deck",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "stack the deck (third-person singular simple present stacks the deck, present participle stacking the deck, simple past and past participle stacked the deck)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2018 June 13, Bryce Covert, “The Demise of Toys 'R' Us Is a Warning”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:",
          "text": "Private equity can stack the deck in other ways, too. Firms can direct businesses they own to buy other companies and then act as broker on the deals, reaping transaction fees.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To give an unfair advantage to somebody."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "unfair",
          "unfair"
        ],
        [
          "advantage",
          "advantage"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, intransitive) To give an unfair advantage to somebody."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "cheat"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively",
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-us-stack the deck.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cd/En-us-stack_the_deck.ogg/En-us-stack_the_deck.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/En-us-stack_the_deck.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "stack the deck"
}

Download raw JSONL data for stack the deck meaning in English (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (eaedd02 and 8fbd9e8). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.