stockpile

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English

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WOTD – 26 August 2022

Etymology

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The noun is derived from stock (“supply of anything ready for use”) +‎ pile (“mass of things heaped together”).[1]

The verb is derived from the noun.[2]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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stockpile (plural stockpiles) (originally US, also figuratively)

  2. A supply (especially a large one) of something kept for future use, specifically in case the cost of the item increases or if there a shortage.
    • 2017 August 25, Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Panarat Thepgumpanat, “Thailand’s ousted PM Yingluck has fled abroad: sources”, in Reuters‎[1], archived from the original on 9 January 2022:
      Under the rice subsidy program, Yingluck [Shinawatra]'s administration paid farmers up to 50 percent more than market prices for their rice. The policy was popular with farmers but left Thailand with huge rice stockpiles and caused $8 billion in losses.
    2. (specifically, military, weaponry) A supply of nuclear weapons kept by a country; a nuclear stockpile.
  4. (mining) A pile of coal or ore heaped up on the ground after it has been mined.
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  • nuclear pile (semantically quite different from a nuclear stockpile)

Translations

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Verb

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stockpile (third-person singular simple present stockpiles, present participle stockpiling, simple past and past participle stockpiled) (originally US, also figuratively)

  1. (transitive)
    1. To accumulate or build up a supply of (something).
      • 2007 June–July (date recorded), Nick Cave (lyrics and music), “Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!”, in Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, published 18 February 2008:
        He stockpiled weapons and took pot shots in the air / He feasted on their lovely bodies like a lunatic
      • 2010 February 7, Adam Gabbatt, “Snow storms cause chaos on US east coast”, in The Guardian:
        Shops' shelves were emptied on Friday as people began stockpiling food, with some unable to leave their homes due to the thigh-high snow.
      • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 July 2022:
        He [Jeff Bezos] once suggested that, by paying college students on every Manhattan block to stockpile products in their apartments and to shuttle them up and down on bicycles, Amazon could edge towards near-instant delivery.
      1. (specifically, military, weaponry) To build up a stock of (nuclear weapons).
    2. (mining) To heap up piles of (coal or ore) on the ground after it has been mined.
  2. (intransitive) To build up a supply; to accumulate.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “stockpile, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “stockpile, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “stockpile, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2019; “stockpile, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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