tack
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /tæk/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -æk
Etymology 1
From Middle English tak, takke (“hook; staple; nail”), from Old Northern French taque (“nail, pin, peg”), from Frankish *takkō, from Proto-Germanic *takkô (“tip; point; protrusion; prong; tine; jag; spike; twig”), 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”).
Alternative forms
Noun
tack (countable and uncountable, plural tacks)
- A small nail with a flat head.
- Hyponym: thumbtack
- 2012 July 15, Richard Williams, “Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot put Bradley Wiggins off track”, in The Guardian:
- A tough test for even the strongest climber, it was new to the Tour de France this year, but its debut will be remembered for the wrong reasons after one of those spectators scattered carpet tacks on the road and induced around 30 punctures among the group of riders including Bradley Wiggins, the Tour's overall leader, and his chief rivals.
- A thumbtack.
- Coordinate term: pushpin
- (sewing) A loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth.
- (nautical) The lower corner on the leading edge of a sail relative to the direction of the wind.
- (nautical) A course or heading that enables a sailing vessel to head upwind.
- (figurative) A direction or course of action, especially a new one; a method or approach to solving a problem.
- 1612, Michael Drayton, chapter 11, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC:
- So stoutly held to tack by those near North-wales men;
- 1922 February, James Joyce, “[V]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
- 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.
- 1994, Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, London: Abacus, published 2010, page 637:
- I thought that my refusing Barnard would alienate Botha, and decided that such a tack was too risky.
- (nautical) The maneuver by which a sailing vessel turns its bow through the wind so that the wind changes from one side to the other.
- (nautical) The distance a sailing vessel runs between these maneuvers when working to windward; a board.
- (nautical) 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.
- Any of the various equipment and accessories worn by horses in the course of their use as domesticated animals.
- (manufacturing, construction, chemistry) 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.
- 1959, E. A. Apps, Printing Ink Technology, page 415:
- 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, […]
- Food generally; fare, especially of the bread kind.
- Near-synonym: biscuit
- 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:
- 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!
- That which is attached; a supplement; an appendix.
- a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, edited by [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Thomas Ward […], published 1724, →OCLC:
- Some tacks had been made to money bills in King Charles's time.
- 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
- pay all taxes and subscribe tacks
- (obsolete) Confidence; reliance.
- 1651-1666, Joseph Caryl, Exposition of Job with Practical Observations:
- He should find […] that there was tack in it, that it was solid silver, or silver that had strength in it.
Synonyms
- (nautical maneuver): coming about
Derived terms
Translations
small nail
|
thumbtack — see thumbtack
loose seam
nautical: lower corner of the leading edge of a sail
|
nautical: course or heading
course of action
nautical: maneuver
nautical: distance between these maneuvers — see board
nautical: rope used to hold in place the foremost lower corner of the sail
any equipment worn by horse
|
chemistry: stickiness
hardtack — see hardtack
Etymology 2
From Middle English takken (“to attach; nail”), from the noun (see above).
Verb
tack (third-person singular simple present tacks, present participle tacking, simple past and past participle tacked)
- (transitive) To nail (something) with a tack (small nail with a flat head).
- To sew/stitch with a tack (loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth).
- To weld with initial small welds to temporarily fasten in preparation for full welding.
- Synonym: tack weld
- (nautical) 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.
- Synonym: change tack
- Antonym: wear
- Coordinate term: sail close to the wind
- (intransitive, nautical) To sail to windward using a series of alternate tacks across the wind.
- To add something as an extra item.
- to tack (something) onto (something)
- 2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes, page 312:
- 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.
- Synonym of tack up (“to prepare a horse for riding by equipping it with a tack”).
- (slang, obsolete) To join in wedlock.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
to nail with tacks
|
to stitch
nautical: to turn the bow through the wind
|
to add onto, to tack one thing onto another
to tack up a horse
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See also
Tack (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - Blu-Tack
Etymology 3
From an old or dialectal form of French tache. See techy. Doublet of tache.
Noun
tack (plural tacks)
References
- (en, flavour or taint): 1893, Joseph Wright, The English dialect dictionary (page 4)
- (en, flavour or taint): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary
Etymology 4
Back-formation from tacky.
Noun
tack (uncountable)
- (colloquial) That which is tacky; something cheap and gaudy.
- 2014, David Leffman, The Rough Guide to China:
- For souvenirs – mostly outright tack and ethnicky textiles – try your bargaining skills at the shops and stalls on Binjiang Luand Zhengyang Jie, or the nightly street market spreading for about a block either side of Shanhu Bridge along Zhongshan Lu.
Etymology 5
From Middle English tak, take (“fee, tax (on livestock)”), from Old Norse tak, taka (“a taking, seizure; revenue”), from Old Norse taka (“to take”). Cognate with Scots tack.
Noun
tack (plural tacks)
- (law, Scotland and Northern England) A contract by which the use of a thing is set, or let, for hire; a lease.
- 1885, Lord Colin Campbell, The Crofter in History:
- 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.
See also
References
- “tack”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “tack”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
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Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English tak, take, from Old Norse tak, taka (“a taking, revenue”).
Noun
tack (plural tacks)
Etymology
From Old Swedish þak, from Runic Swedish þakk, from Old Norse þǫkk, from Proto-Germanic *þankō, *þankaz. Cognates include English thank, German Dank, Danish tak and Norwegian Nynorsk takk/Norwegian Bokmål takk.
Pronunciation
Interjection
tack
- thanks, thank you
- Synonym: (emphatic) tack snälla (“thank you so much”)
- – Här är grejen du frågade efter. – Tack!
- – Here's the thing you asked for. – Thank you!
- Tack för hjälpen!
- Thanks for the help! / Thanks for helping me out!
- Tack för att du hämtade ungarna!
- Thanks for picking up the kids!
- Tack för att vi fick komma
- Thank you for having us ("Thank you for that we were-allowed-to come")
- please (to add politeness)
- Synonym: (in polite requests) är du snäll
- Vi skulle vilja beställa, tack
- We would like to order, please
- Det blir hundra kronor, tack
- That will be one hundred kronor, please
- Stå inte där, tack / är du snäll. Du är i vägen.
- Don't stand there, please. You are in the way. (possibly somewhat rude still, like in English – "Ursäkta, skulle du kunna flytta dig lite så att vi kan komma förbi" (Excuse me, could you ["would you be able to," literally] move over a bit so we can get past) is politer)
Usage notes
Derived terms
- ja tack
- nej tack
- tack för mig
- tack så mycket
- tack vare
- tacksam (“grateful”)
Related terms
Noun
tack n
- a thank you, a thanks (phrase or gesture that expresses gratitude)
- Du ska ha ett stort tack för allt du gjort för oss!
- Thank you very much for all you have done for us! ("You shall have a big thank you for everything you have done for us!")
- Inte ens ett tack fick vi ("Vi fick inte ens ett tack" also works. Putting "inte ens ett tack" (not even a thank you) first emphasizes it.)
- We didn't even get a thank you
Declension
Declension of tack
| nominative | genitive | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| singular | indefinite | tack | tacks |
| definite | tacket | tackets | |
| plural | indefinite | tack | tacks |
| definite | tacken | tackens | |
Derived terms
See also
- förlåt (“I'm sorry”)
- hygglig
- hygglo
- schysst
- skola (for other ways to make expressions polite)
- snälla (“please (when pleading)”)
- tack och bock
- tackar och bockar
- ursäkta (“excuse me”)
- är du snäll
References
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