haystack

Definition

A mound, pile, or stack of stored hay.

Etymology

From Middle English haystak, haystake, hey stak, equivalent to hay + stack.

Example Sentences

• "Both of these functions will look through the haystack for the specified needle and, if they find it, will return the portion of the string from the beginning of the needle to the end of the haystack."
• "But the point of confining the Kansas City gun experiment to the worst parts of the worst neighborhoods was to make the haystack just a little smaller, and to make the inevitable trade-off between fighting crime and harassing innocent people just a little more manageable."