Blend ofneedle +haystack, from the metaphor of aneedle in a haystack.
needlestack (pluralneedlestacks)
- (figurative) A stack ofneedles. Represents the task of finding one thing among a large number of very similar things.
1988 April 15, James Krohe Jr., “Where Has All the Flora Gone?”, inChicago Reader[1]:Unless their flag of a flower is waving, finding such plants is like finding a needle in aneedlestack.
2004, Dennis Rumley, Sanjay Chaturvedi,Geopolitical Orientations, Regionalism And Security In The Indian Ocean[2], page43:In those decades of European peace and unchallenged British ascendancy, this small number of ships was enough to keep watch on the French ports and the major sea routes of the world, but not to hunt for needles inneedlestacks and make all slavers and pirates quake with fear.
