pack

See also: Pack

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pæk/, [pʰæk]

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle English pak, pakke, from Old English *pæcca and/or Middle Dutch pak, packe; both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pakkō, from Proto-Germanic *pakkô (“bundle, pack”). Cognate with Dutch pak (“pack”), Low German Pack (“pack”), German Pack (“pack”), Swedish packe (“pack”), Icelandic pakka, pakki (“package”).

Noun

English Wikipedia has an article on:

pack

Wikipedia

pack (plural packs)

1. A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back, but also a load for an animal, a bale.

   The horses carried the packs across the plain.

   • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Slavery in Massachusetts:

     We do not ask him to make up his mind, but to make up his pack.

2. A number or quantity equal to the contents of a pack
3. A multitude.

   a pack of lies

   a pack of complaints

4. A number or quantity of connected or similar things; a collective.
5. A full set of playing cards

   We were going to play cards, but nobody brought a pack.

6. The assortment of playing cards used in a particular game.

   cut the pack

7. A group of hounds or dogs, hunting or kept together.
   • 2005, John D. Skinner, Christian T. Chimimba, The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion:

     African wild dogs hunt by sight, although stragglers use their noses to follow the pack.

8. A wolfpack: a number of wolves, hunting together.
   • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 117:

     If I hurried down to the river, he said, I should be sure to fall in with a pack of wolves, for just as he was driving up the hill close to the sound, they started up the river on the ice.

9. A flock of knots.
   • 1988, Michael Cady, Rob Hume, editors, The Complete Book of British Birds, page 154:

     They form extremely tight flocks, which carpet the ground, giving rise to the descriptive name of "a pack" of knots.

10. A group of people associated or leagued in a bad design or practice; a gang.

    a pack of thieves

    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 240:

      "She will try, for she does not know that it is you who dropped the tallow on the shirt; but that can only be done by Christian folks, and not by a pack of trolls like we have in this place; and so I will say that I will not have anybody else for a bride except the one who can wash the shirt clean, and I know you can do that."

    • 1976, Freda Adler, Herbert Marcus Adler, Sisters in Crime: The Rise of the New Female Criminal, page 100:

      In London there are some thirty gangs of “bovver birds,” violence-prone girls who roam the streets in packs attacking almost any vulnerable object for no apparent reason other than the sheer thrill of it.

11. A group of Cub Scouts.
12. A shook of cask staves.
13. A bundle of sheet iron plates for rolling simultaneously.
14. A large area of floating pieces of ice driven together more or less closely.

    The ship had to sail round the pack of ice.

15. (medicine) An envelope, or wrapping, of sheets used in hydropathic practice, called dry pack, wet pack, cold pack, etc., according to the method of treatment.
16. (slang) A loose, lewd, or worthless person. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
17. (snooker, pool) A tight group of object balls in cue sports. Usually the reds in snooker.
18. (rugby) The forwards in a rugby team (eight in Rugby Union, six in Rugby League) who with the opposing pack constitute the scrum.

    The captain had to take a man out of the pack to replace the injured fullback.

    • 2019 November 3, Liam de Carme, “Boks, you beauties”, in Sunday Times‎:

      If the pack wasn't pummelling England, Handre Pollard kept delivering telling blows.

19. (roller derby) The largest group of blockers from both teams skating in close proximity.

Synonyms

• (full set of cards): deck

Derived terms

Terms derived from pack (noun)

• ahead of the pack
• backpack
• battery pack
• blister pack
• bobbery pack
• bowl pack
• brick pack
• bubble pack
• buddy pack
• case pack
• cold pack
• daypack
• day pack
• Duluth pack
• dye pack
• eight pack
• eight-pack
• expansion pack
• face pack
• fanny pack
• flash pack
• flat pack
• forepack
• froth pack
• fun pack
• halal snack pack
• haul-pack truck
• hip pack
• ice pack
• jam-pack
• jet pack/jetpack/jet-pack
• joker in the pack
• mod pack
• naughty-pack
• pack animal
• pack-away
• pack horse
• pack horse/packhorse/pack-horse
• pack hound
• pack ice
• pack-in
• pack journalism
• pack journalist
• pack lunch
• pack mentality
• pack of cards
• pack of lies
• pack-rat
• pack rat
• pack-shepherd
• pack train
• pack train
• pack-train
• pack-up
• pack-up kit
• pack-year
• pack year
• photo pack
• piddle pack
• power pack
• press pack
• ram-pack
• RAM pack
• rat pack
• rocket pack
• rocket-pack
• scene pack
• service pack
• six-pack
• six pack
• six-pack bezique
• six-pack of rolls
• starter pack
• stim pack
• vac pack
• vacuum pack
• wolf pack
• wolf-pack
• X-pack

 

Translations

bundle to be carried

Arabic: حُزْمَة f (ḥuzma), عُبُوَّة f (ʕubuwwa) Armenian: փաթեթ (hy) (pʻatʻetʻ) Aromanian: sartsinã f Belarusian: паке́т m (pakjét), па́чка f (páčka), па́чак m (páčak) Bulgarian: вързо́п (bg) m (vǎrzóp), денк (bg) m (denk) Chinese: Mandarin: 包 (zh) (bāo), 捆 (zh) (kǔn) Czech: balík (cs) m, balíček (cs) m Esperanto: pako (eo), pakaĵo Finnish: taakka (fi) French: pack (fr) m, paquet (fr) m German: Pack (de) m, Packung (de) f, Bündel (de) m Irish: paca m Italian: basto (it) m, soma (it) f, carico (it) m Japanese: パック (ja) (pakku) Khmer: កញ្ចប់ (km) (kɑñcɑp), ប៉ៅ (km) (paw), បេ (paw) Korean: 짐 (ko) (jim), 꾸러미 (kkureomi), 바리 (ko) (bari), 팩 (ko) (paek), 갑(匣) (ko) (gap) Lao: ກັບ (lo) (kap) Macedonian: пакет (mk) m (paket) Maori: pīkaunga Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Polish: pakiet (pl) m, paczka (pl) f Portuguese: fardo (pt) m Romanian: sarcină (ro) f Russian: паке́т (ru) m (pakét), упако́вка (ru) f (upakóvka), па́чка (ru) f (páčka), свя́зка (ru) f (svjázka) Slovak: balík m, balíček m Slovene: sveženj (sl) m, zavoj m, paket m Spanish: paquete (es) m Swedish: paket (sv) n Tagalog: balutan (tl), basta Thai: ซอง (th) (sɔɔng) Tày: ben, bỏ Ukrainian: паке́т f (pakét), па́чка f (páčka), па́ка f (páka) Vietnamese: bao (vi), chồng (vi), xấp (vi), tập (vi) Volapük: päk (vo)

a number or quantity of connected or similar things

Belarusian: гру́па f (hrúpa) Bulgarian: гру́па (bg) f (grúpa) Russian: гру́ппа (ru) f (grúppa) Ukrainian: гру́па (uk) f (hrúpa)

full set of playing cards

Belarusian: кало́да f (kalóda) Bulgarian: коло́да f (kolóda) Catalan: baralla (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 副 (zh) (fù) Czech: balíček (cs) m Esperanto: kartaro Finnish: pakka (fi) German: Kartenspiel (de) n, Kartenstapel m Hungarian: pakli (hu) Irish: deic f Italian: mazzo (it) m Latin: fasciculus m Macedonian: шпил m (špil) Manx: sthock m Maori: pūkei kāri Norwegian: Bokmål: stokk (no) m, kortstokk (no) m, kortleik (no) m Nynorsk: stokk m, kortstokk m, kortleik m Polish: talia (pl) f Portuguese: baralho (pt) Romanian: pachet (ro) n Russian: коло́да (ru) f (kolóda) Spanish: baraja (es) f Tagalog: baraha, manghal Ukrainian: коло́да (uk) f (kolóda)

group of dogs

Arabic: please add this translation if you can Armenian: ոհմակ (hy) (ohmak) Belarusian: згра́я f (zhrája), гайня́ f (hajnjá) Bulgarian: глу́тница (bg) f (glútnica) Chinese: Mandarin: 群 (zh) (qún), 一群 (zh) (yīqún) Czech: smečka (cs) f Danish: flok (da) c Dutch: meute (nl) f Esperanto: hundaro Finnish: lauma (fi) French: meute (fr) f Georgian: ხროვა (xrova) German: Rudel (de) n Greek: αγέλη (el) f (agéli) Hebrew: לַהֲקָה (he) f (lahaqá) Italian: muta (it) f Japanese: 群れ (ja) (むれ, mure) Khmer: ហ្វូង (km) (voung) Korean: 군(群) (ko) (gun), 무리 (ko) (muri), 팩 (ko) (paek) Macedonian: глутница f (glutnica) Malay: kawanan (ms) Norwegian: Bokmål: flokk (no) Nynorsk: flokk m Polish: stado (pl) n, sfora (pl) f, zgraja (pl) f Portuguese: matilha (pt) f Romanian: haită (ro) f Russian: ста́я (ru) f (stája), сво́ра (ru) f (svóra) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: чо̏пор m Roman: čȍpor (sh) m Slovak: svorka f Slovene: trop (sl) m, krdelo (sl) n Spanish: jauría (es) f, manada (es) f Swedish: flock (sv) c Tagalog: kawan Ukrainian: згра́я (uk) f (zhrája) Vietnamese: bầy (vi) Welsh: cnud f

group of wolves — see wolfpack

Etymology 2

From Middle English pakken, from the noun (see above). Compare Middle Dutch packen (“to pack”), Middle Low German packen (“to pack”).

Verb

pack (third-person singular simple present packs, present participle packing, simple past and past participle packed)

1. (physical) To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport.
   1. (transitive) To make a pack of; to arrange closely and securely in a pack; hence, to place and arrange compactly as in a pack

      to pack goods in a box;  to pack fish

      • 1712, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, number 275:

        strange materials wound up in that shape and texture, and packed together with wonderful art in the several cavities of the skull

      • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

        Where, for these many hundred years, the bones
        Of all my buried ancestors are packed

   2. (transitive) To fill in the manner of a pack, that is, compactly and securely, as for transportation; hence, to fill closely or to repletion; to stow away within; to cause to be full; to crowd into.

      to pack a trunk;  the play, or the audience, packs the theater

      • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:

        By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.

      • 2007 November 23, Claudia La Rocco, “Ballet and African Steps, Delivered at Warp Speed”, in The New York Times‎:

        The mix of ballet vocabulary, modern techniques and African steps is familiar, but the extent to which Mr. Rhoden packs — and overpacks — phrases, cultivates warp-speed delivery and hyperextends every possible hip jut and arabesque is, thank goodness, something special to Complexions.

   3. (transitive) To wrap in a wet or dry sheet, within numerous coverings.

      The doctor gave Kelly some sulfa pills and packed his arm in hot-water bags.

   4. (transitive) To make impervious, such as by filling or surrounding with suitable material, or to fit or adjust so as to move without allowing air, water, or steam inside.

      to pack a joint;  to pack the piston of a steam engine;  pack someone's arm with ice.

   5. (intransitive) To make up packs, bales, or bundles; to stow articles securely for transportation.
   6. (intransitive) To form a compact mass, especially in order for transportation.

      the goods pack conveniently;  wet snow packs well

   7. (intransitive, of animals) To gather together in flocks, herds, schools or similar groups of animals.

      the grouse or the perch begin to pack

   8. (transitive, historical) To combine (telegraph messages) in order to send them more cheaply as a single transmission.
2. (social) To cheat.
   1. (transitive, card games) To sort and arrange (the cards) in the pack to give oneself an unfair advantage
      • 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:

        Mighty dukes pack cards for half a crown.

   2. (transitive) To bring together or make up unfairly, in order to secure a certain result.

      to pack a jury

      • 1687, Francis Atterbury, An answer to some considerations on the spirit of Martin Luther and the original of the Reformation:

        The expected council was dwindling into […] a packed assembly of Italian bishops.

   3. (transitive) To contrive unfairly or fraudulently; to plot.
      • 1655, Thomas Fuller, “He lost life […] upon a nice point subtilely devised and packed by his enemies.”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):

   4. (intransitive) To put together for morally wrong purposes; to join in cahoots.
      • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

        This naughty man / Shall face to face be brought to Margaret, / Who, I believe, was pack'd in all this wrong, / Hired to it by your brother.

3. (transitive) To load with a pack

   to pack a horse

4. (transitive, figurative) to load; to encumber.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     our thighs packed with wax, our mouths with honey

5. To move, send or carry.
   1. (transitive) To cause to go; to send away with baggage or belongings; especially, to send away peremptorily or suddenly; – sometimes with off. See pack off.

      to pack a boy off to school

      • c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

        Till George be packed with post horse up to heaven.

   2. (transitive, US, chiefly Western US) To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (on the backs of men or animals).
   3. (intransitive) To depart in haste; – generally with off or away.
      • 1723, Jonathan Swift, Stella at Wood-Park:

        Poor Stella must pack off to town.

      • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, Dora:

        You shall pack, / And never more darken my doors again.

   4. (transitive, slang) To carry weapons, especially firearms, on one's person.

      packing heat

   5. (intransitive, LGBTQ, especially of a trans man or drag king) To wear an object, such as a prosthetic penis, inside one’s trousers to appear more male or masculine.
      • 1995, Robin Sweeney, “Too Butch to Be Bi (or You Can't Judge a Boy by Her Lover)”, in Naomi Tucker, Liz Highleyman, Rebecca Kaplan, editors, Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions‎, Binghamton: The Haworth Press, →ISBN, page 181:

        I am a butch bisexual woman […] Frequently I like to appear as masculine as I can, often passing for male on the street. […] Sometimes I pack when I go out, putting my dildo in my pants and wearing my dick out of the house.

6. (transitive, sports, slang) To block a shot, especially in basketball.
7. (intransitive, rugby, of the forwards in a rugby team) To play together cohesively, specially with reference to their technique in the scrum.

Synonyms

• (To sort and arrange (the cards) in a pack so as to secure the game unfairly): stack

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “make into a pack”): unpack

Derived terms

terms derived from pack (verb)

• pack and play
• pack a punch
• pack a sad
• pack a wallop
• pack away
• packer
• pack fudge
• pack heat
• pack in
• pack off
• pack on
• pack one's bags
• pack on pounds
• pack on the pounds
• pack out
• pack shit
• pack up
• pick and pack
• stack-and-pack
• vacuum pack

 

Translations

to put things together for storage or transporting

Arabic: وَضَّبَ (waḍḍaba), حَزَمَ (ḥazama) Belarusian: упако́ўваць impf (upakóŭvacʹ), пакава́ць impf (pakavácʹ), упакава́ць pf (upakavácʹ), спако́ўваць impf (spakóŭvacʹ), спакава́ць pf (spakavácʹ) Bulgarian: опако́вам (bg) impf or pf (opakóvam) Chinese: Mandarin: 包裝／包装 (zh) (bāozhuāng) Finnish: pakata (fi) French: emballer (fr) German: packen (de), einpacken (de), verpacken (de) Japanese: 詰める (ja) (つめ​る, tsumeru), 包む (ja) (つつ​む, tsutsumu), 包装する (ja) (ほうそうする, hōsō suru) Korean: 싸다 (ko) (ssada), 꾸리다 (ko) (kkurida), 챙기다 (ko) (chaenggida) Latin: convāsō Lithuanian: pakuoti Maori: tāhere, whakamātā Polish: pakować (pl) impf, spakować (pl) pf, zapakowywać (pl) impf, zapakować (pl) pf Russian: упако́вывать (ru) impf (upakóvyvatʹ), пакова́ть (ru) impf (pakovátʹ), упакова́ть (ru) pf (upakovátʹ) Thai: ห่อ (th) (hɔ̀ɔ) Ukrainian: упако́вувати impf (upakóvuvaty), пакува́ти impf (pakuváty), упакува́ти pf (upakuváty), спако́вувати impf (spakóvuvaty), спакува́ти pf (spakuváty) Vietnamese: gói (vi)

to make a pack

Bulgarian: навъ́рзвам impf (navǎ́rzvam), навъ́ржа pf (navǎ́rža) Catalan: fer (la maleta) Chinese: Mandarin: 包 (zh) (bāo), 包裝／包装 (zh) (bāozhuāng) Czech: balit (cs) Esperanto: paki French: emballer (fr) German: packen (de), verpacken (de), einpacken (de) Ido: enpakigar (io) Irish: pacáil Italian: impacchettare (it) Japanese: 包む (ja) (つつむ, tsutsumu) Korean: 꾸리다 (ko) (kkurida), 싸다 (ko) (ssada) Latvian: pakot (lv) Manx: pagg Norman: patchi Portuguese: fazer (pt) Russian: упако́вывать (ru) impf (upakóvyvatʹ), упакова́ть (ru) pf (upakovátʹ), запако́вывать (ru) impf (zapakóvyvatʹ), запакова́ть (ru) pf (zapakovátʹ) Slovene: pakirati, zaviti (sl) Spanish: empaquetar (es) Swedish: packa (sv) Tagalog: magbalot, balutin, ibalot, mag-impake, impakihin, magbasta, bastain Turkish: paketlemek (tr) Volapük: päkön (vo)

to fill in the manner of a pack

Bulgarian: натъ́пквам (bg) impf (natǎ́pkvam), натъ́пча pf (natǎ́pča) Irish: pacáil Maori: pōkai, whakatakupe Tagalog: magsiksik, isiksik, siksikan, siksikin

to stow away within

Irish: pacáil Maori: tāhere Tagalog: magkarga, kargahan, ikarga

Chinese

Etymology

From English pack.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): pek¹

---

• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: pek¹
    • Yale: pēk
    • Cantonese Pinyin: pek⁷
    • Guangdong Romanization: pég¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰɛːk̚⁵/

Classifier

pack

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) Classifier for packs (bundles) of objects.

Verb

pack

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to pack up

References

• Bauer, Robert S. (2021) ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN, page 788

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English pack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pak/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

pack m (plural packs)

1. pack (item of packaging)
2. pack ice
3. (sports) a rugby team

Further reading

• “pack”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Middle English

Noun

pack

1. Alternative form of pak

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English pack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɛk(i)/

Noun

pack m (invariable)

1. (colloquial, euphemistic) sexual photos and videos sold over the internet

   A garota começou a vender packs para pagar as despesas.

   The girl started selling packs to pay her expenses.

Scots

Adjective

pack

1. intimate; confidential

Derived terms

• packness

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English pack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpak/ [ˈpak]
• Rhymes: -ak
• Syllabification: pack

Noun

pack m (plural packs)

1. pack, package
2. kit, set, bundle
3. (colloquial, euphemistic) sexual photos and videos, paid or not, sent over internet, network social; sexting photos

Swedish

Noun

pack n

1. (derogatory) socially despised people; scum, trash, (when related to low social class) dregs, riffraff, etc.

   fotbollshuliganer och annat pack

   football hooligans and other scum

2. stuff, things, luggage; only used in pick och pack

Declension

Declension of pack

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	pack	packs
	definite	packet	packets
plural	indefinite	—	—
	definite	—	—

Descendants

• → Finnish: pakka

See also

• avskum
• bottenskrap
• drägg
• kräk
• packa
• paket
• pöbel
• slödder

References

• pack in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• pack in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• pack in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)