unwind the stack vi.
1. [techspeak] During the execution of a procedural language,
one is said to `unwind the stack' from a called procedure up to a
caller when one discards the stack frame and any number of frames
above it, popping back up to the level of the given caller. In C
this is done with longjmp/setjmp, in
LISP or C++ with throw/catch. See also smash the stack. 2. People can
unwind the stack as well, by quickly dealing with a bunch of
problems: "Oh heck, let's do lunch. Just a second while I unwind
my stack."