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tack

noun
/tæk/US

Etymology

From Middle English tak, takke (“hook; staple; nail”), from Old Northern French taque (“nail, pin, peg”), from Frankish *takkō (“twig, branch, shoot”), of unknown origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *dHgʰ-n-, from the root *déHgʰ- (“to pinch; to tear, rip, fray”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Takke (“bough; branch; twig”), West Frisian takke (“branch”), tûk (“branch, smart, sharp”), Dutch tak (“twig; branch; limb”), German Zacke (“jag; prong; spike; tooth; peak”).

  1. derived from *takkō✻ — “twig, branch, shoot”
  2. inherited from tak

Definitions

  1. A small nail with a flat head.

  2. A thumbtack.

  3. A loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth.

  4. ›+ 24 more definitions

    1. The lower corner on the leading edge of a sail relative to the direction of the wind.

    2. A course or heading that enables a sailing vessel to head upwind.

    3. A direction or course of action, especially a new one

      A direction or course of action, especially a new one; a method or approach to solving a problem.

      • So stoutly held to tack by those near North-wales men;
      • Maud Gonne’s letter about taking them off O’Connell street at night: disgrace to our Irish capital. Griffith’s paper is on the same tack now: an army rotten with venereal disease: overseas or halfseasover empire.
      • I thought that my refusing Barnard would alienate Botha, and decided that such a tack was too risky.

    4. The maneuver by which a sailing vessel turns its bow through the wind so that the wind…

      The maneuver by which a sailing vessel turns its bow through the wind so that the wind changes from one side to the other.

    5. The distance a sailing vessel runs between these maneuvers when working to windward

      The distance a sailing vessel runs between these maneuvers when working to windward; a board.

    6. A rope used to hold in place the foremost lower corners of the courses when the vessel is…

      A rope used to hold in place the foremost lower corners of the courses when the vessel is close-hauled; also, a rope employed to pull the lower corner of a studding sail to the boom.

    7. Any of the various equipment and accessories worn by horses in the course of their use as…

      Any of the various equipment and accessories worn by horses in the course of their use as domesticated animals.

    8. The stickiness of a compound, related to its cohesive and adhesive properties.

      • The laminate adhesive has very aggressive tack and is hard to move once in place.
      • Letterpress and offset gloss varnishes normally have viscosities varying from 50 to 250 poises; they must stain the paper as little as possible, have insufficient tack to cause plucking, […]

    9. Food generally

      Food generally; fare, especially of the hard bread or breadlike kind.

      • Near-synonyms: biscuit, bread
      • But if a woman's got nothing but her fair fame to feed on, why, it's thin tack, and a donkey would die of it!

    10. That which is attached

      That which is attached; a supplement; an appendix.

      • Some tacks had been made to money bills in King Charles's time.
      • pay all taxes and subscribe tacks

    11. Confidence

      Confidence; reliance.

      • He should find[…]that there was tack in it, that it was solid silver, or silver that had strength in it.

    12. To nail (something) with a tack (small nail with a flat head).

      • The hallway smelt of boiled cabbage and old rag mats. At one end of it a colored poster, too large for indoor display, had been tacked to the wall.

    13. To sew/stitch with a tack (loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth).

    14. To weld with initial small welds to temporarily fasten in preparation for full welding.

    15. To maneuver a sailing vessel so that its bow turns through the wind, i.e. the wind…

      To maneuver a sailing vessel so that its bow turns through the wind, i.e. the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other.

    16. To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.

    17. To add something as an extra item.

      • to tack (something) onto (something)
      • In short, they tend to present Indian English as nothing more than "standard" English with a select collection of lexical peculiarities tacked on, as it were, many of which would be regarded as "errors" by prescriptivist language scholars.

    18. Synonym of tack up (“to prepare a horse for riding by equipping it with a tack”).

    19. To join in wedlock.

    20. A stain

      A stain; a tache.

    21. A peculiar flavour or taint.

      • a musty tack

    22. That which is tacky

      That which is tacky; something cheap and gaudy.

    23. A contract by which the use of a thing is set, or let, for hire

      A contract by which the use of a thing is set, or let, for hire; a lease.

      • In the Breadalbane papers, for example, there is a "tack" which was given by Sir John Campbell of Glenurchy to his "weil belouit" servant John M'Conoquhy V'Gregour, in the year 1530.

    24. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

bartack, Blu-Tack, change of tack, coffin tack, detack, down tack, false tack, get down to brass tacks, hardtack, hold tack, on the tack, sharp as a tack, sit on a tack, switch tack, tackboard, tack claw, tacker, tackify, tackless, tacklifter, tack lifter, tack room, tacksman, tack weld, thumbtack, tie tack, tintack, untack, short-tack, retack, tack about, tack down, tack on, tack together, tack up

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for tack. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA