take up the slack

Definitions

1. 1

   To tighten something that is slack so that it is taut.

   • You need to take up the slack in your cables so shifters and brakes function properly.
   • To tighten the wire, thread a stick through both loops of wire; by twisting the stick you will take up the slack in the wires, pulling them taut.
   • The engines laboured, straining between the forces of tide and wind to take up the slack on the huge chains and pull the ferry across the water.
2. 2

   To do work that would otherwise be left undone.

   • A production never has enough time or enough money. Someone has to take up the slack.
   • When fighting at the front grew intense and casualties got heavy, traveling teams of surgeons were called in temporarily to take up the slack.
3. 3

   To provide extra resources that are not met by normal sources.

   • As oil production worldwide plateaus and falters, other fossil fuels are coming under strain, and no alternative — renewable or otherwise — shows any sign of being able to take up the slack.
   • ...and local farms were not productive enough to take up the slack.
   • We have but only one life to live I take you back, you take me back I come up short and you take up the slack
4. ›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To act as a slack variable, converting an inequality into an equality.

      • A slack variable is a real variable which is introduced to take up the slack in an inequality constraint, i.e., to convert an inequality constraint to an equality constraint.
   2. 5

      To consume something that would otherwise go to waste.

      • It is the nature of monopoly capitalism to create unused industrial capacity and unemployment. The arms economy is an effort to take up the slack in this unused capacity.
      • Additionally, new export markets may be developed that will take up the slack left by falling demand in the United States.
      • Honor gained through euergetism (i.e., paying for public works that benefited the community), paying to build a school or theater or temple at home, helped take up the slack.

The neighborhood

• neighbortake it from here
• neighbortake it from there