Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Food, especially coarse or inferior foodstuffs.
  • noun A short, light nail with a sharp point and a flat head.
  • noun A rope for holding down the weather clew of a course.
  • noun A rope for hauling the outer lower corner of a studdingsail to the boom.
  • noun The part of a sail, such as the weather clew of a course, to which this rope is fastened.
  • noun The lower forward corner of a fore-and-aft sail.
  • noun The position of a vessel relative to the trim of its sails.
  • noun The act of changing from one position or direction to another.
  • noun The distance or leg sailed between changes of position or direction.
  • noun An approach to accomplishing a goal or a method of dealing with a problem.
  • noun A large, loose stitch made as a temporary binding or as a marker.
  • noun Stickiness, as that of a newly painted surface.
  • intransitive verb To fasten or attach with a tack or tacks.
  • intransitive verb To fasten or mark (cloth or a seam, for example) with a loose basting stitch.
  • intransitive verb To put together loosely and arbitrarily.
  • intransitive verb To add as an extra item; append.
  • intransitive verb Nautical To bring (a vessel) into the wind in order to change course or direction.
  • intransitive verb To change the direction of a sailing vessel, especially by turning the bow into and past the direction of the wind.
  • intransitive verb To sail a zigzag course upwind by repeatedly executing such a maneuver.
  • intransitive verb To change tack.
  • intransitive verb To change one's course of action.
  • noun The harness for a horse, including the bridle and saddle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To attack.
  • noun A variety of pistol used by the Highlanders of Scotland. See dag, 2.
  • noun A distinctive taste or flavor; a continuing or abiding smack.
  • noun Side: said of a speculator's relationship to the market.
  • noun A spot; a stain; a blemish.
  • noun A short, sharp-pointed nail or pin, used as a fastener by being driven or thrust-through the material to be fastened into the substance to which it is to be fixed.
  • noun In needlework, a long stitch, usually one of a number intended to hold two pieces of stuff together, preparatory to more thorough sewing. Compare basting.
  • noun Nautical: A heavy rope used to confine the foremost lower corner of the courses; also, a rope by which the outer lower corner of a studdingsail is pulled out to the end of the boom.
  • noun The part of a sail to which the tack is fastened, the foremost lower corner of a course, jib, or staysail, or the outer lower corner of a studdingsail.
  • noun Hence— The course of a ship in relation to the position of her sails: as, the starboard tack, or port tack (the former when she is close-hauled with the wind on her starboard, the latter when close-hauled with the wind on her port side).
  • noun A temporary change of a few points in the direction of sailing, as to take advantage of a side wind; one of a series of movements of a vessel to starboard and port alternately out of the general line of her course.
  • noun Hence A determinate course or change of course in general; a tactical line or turn of procedure; a mode of action or conduct adopted or pursued for some specific reason.
  • noun In plumbing, the fastening of a pipe to a wall or the like, consisting of a strip of lead soldered to the pipe, nailed to the support, and turned back over the nails.
  • noun Something that is attached or fixed in place, or that holds, adheres, or sticks.
  • noun The condition of being tacked or fastened; stability; fixedness; firm grasp; reliance. See to hold tack, below.
  • noun In the arts, an adhesive or sticky condition, as of a partially dried, varnished, painted, or oiled surface; stickiness.
  • noun In Scots law, a contract by which the use of a thing is let for hire; a lease: as, a tack of land.
  • noun Hence— Land occupied on lease; a rented farm.
  • noun Hired pasturage; the renting of pasture for cattle.
  • noun Substance; solidity: spoken of the food of cattle and other stock.
  • noun Bad food.
  • noun Bad malt liquor.
  • noun Food in general; fare: as, hard tack, coarse fare; soft tack, good fare.
  • noun Specifically, among sailors, soldiers, etc., bread, or anything of the bread kind, distinguished as hard tack (or hardtack) and soft tack. See hardtack.
  • To fasten by tacks; join, attach, or secure by some slight or temporary fastening: as, to tack down a carpet; to tack up a curtain; to tack a shoe to the last; to tack parts of a garment together with pins or by basting preparatory to sewing.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English tak, fastener, from Old North French taque, probably of Germanic origin.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for tackle.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word tack.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • directly as in tack (down) v. indirectly as tack into the wind.

    April 26, 2008

  • Public School Slang: A study feast.

    April 14, 2009

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Word Histories tells me "The tack associated with horse-riding was originally dialect in the general sense 'apparatus, equipment' and is a contraction of tackle. The current sense (as in tack room) dates from the 1920s."

    January 26, 2016

  • What if one loses track of tack? Would that be a tacky situation? Would it be a task hard to tackle? (Did you grasp tack?)

    What type of tack would you use on a tackey horse? If the tack wasn't to the tackey's liking would the horse become techy?

    January 27, 2016