See Also: tack(2)(dictionary)
tack(6)(dictionary)
tack(5)(dictionary)
tack(4)(dictionary)
tack(3)(dictionary)
tack(8)(dictionary)
tack(14)(dictionary)
tack(13)(dictionary)
tack(12)(dictionary)
tack(11)(dictionary)

tack(10) (iou)



tack verb1. [tak] LME.
[Rel. to TACK noun1: see TACHE verb2.]
I.
verb trans.
a. Attach, fasten (a thing to another, or things together). obsolete exc. dial. & as passing into sense 2. LME.
Steele He..tacked together the Skins of Goats.
b. transf. & fig. Attach. M16-L18.
W. Gilpin He who works without taste..tacks one part to another as his..fancy suggests.
c. Join (a couple) in marriage. slang. L17-E19.
verb trans. Attach in a temporary manner; esp. fasten with tacks or short nails, or stitch (seams etc.) loosely or temporarily together. LME.
Blitz I have a photograph..tacked to my study wall. M. Wesley Tacking a sleeve into the armhole of a..dress.
verb trans. Connect or link by an intervening part. M17-M18.
Horace Walpole They..have tacked..the wings to a house by a colonade.
verb trans. Join together (events, accounts, etc.) so as to produce or show a connected whole; esp. bring (disparate or unconnected parts etc.) into arbitrary association. L17.
G. S. Haight She..could tack together long quotations from books..to make convincing reviews.
verb trans. Add as a supplement; append, annex; spec. append (an extraneous clause) to a financial bill to ensure that the bill is passed. Also foll. by on. L17.
A. Tyler A tacked-on, gray frame addition gave it a ramshackle look. Balance Holiday insurance is an extra tacked onto the car recovery packagesomething of an afterthought.
verb trans. Law. Unite (a third or subsequent encumbrance) to the first, whereby it acquires priority over an intermediate mortgage. Now Hist. E18.
II.
verb intrans. Nautical.
a. Alter a sailing ship's course by turning the head to the wind and across it, so as to bring the wind on the opposite side of the vessel; go about in this way (also foll. by about). Hence (freq. of a ship), make a run or course obliquely against the wind; proceed by a series of such courses to port and starboard alternately, the net distance gained being to windward. Cf. GYBE verb 2a, WEAR verb2. M16.
I. Watson We tacked against the prevailing wind.
b. Of the wind: change its direction. rare. E18.
verb intrans.
a. fig. Change a course of action, a policy, or one's conduct. Also (rare), proceed by indirect methods. M17.
W. Stubbs He is not..diverted, although he sometimes consents to tack.
b. transf. Follow a zigzag course on land. E18.
K. Roberts He tacked from pub to pub.
verb trans. Alter the course of (a ship) by turning the head to the wind (opp. WEAR verb2). Also, navigate (a ship) against the wind by a series of tacks. M17.
tacker noun (a) a person (esp. in the early 18th cent.) who favoured the tacking of extraneous clauses to financial bills, in order to secure their passage through the House of Lords; (b) a person who tacks or fastens articles etc.; a machine for driving in tacks; (c) dial. & Austral. a small child, esp. a boy: E18.