_haystacking_, _haystack_, v. (not in dictionaries)

[Laurence Horn]

This one doesn't appear even in the urbandictionary, where all the glosses ('Hayward, CA', 'nickname for fat person', 'stack of hay', and the obligatory sexual term) are for the noun.  But the gerund does appear in the UD for a relevant (although not identical) use:

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The act of sending an lengthy email chain to a recipient with vague directions to "see below" or "please note" without providing further instructions. This forces the recipient to search through a long list of email correspondences in hopes of figuring out what you're referring to (i.e. searching for a needle in a haystack).
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The verb/gerund appears (at least) twice in a forensic context in Michael Connelly's _The Reversal_, to refer to the practice of prosecutors overwhelming the defense team, or vice versa, with so much evidentiary material that they won't be able to locate the needle of relevant evidence within the largely irrelevant haystack in time to meet the needed goal in the courtroom.  Here's one example; the deputy DA is trying to reassure a prosecution witness about the potential witnesses named in the defense lawyer's list:

"Just because they're on that list, it doesn't mean they'll be called.  They pull names out of the records and load up the list to confuse us, Sarah.  It's called _haystacking_. They hide the real witnesses, and our investigator--Detective Bosch--wastes his time checking out the wrong people."

LH

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