tack´er

tack¹ «tak», noun, verb.

–n.

1. a short, sharp-pointed nail or pin with a flat, broad head: »

We bought some carpet tacks.

2. a long, loose stitch used as a temporary fastening before final sewing.

3. any very slight, loose fastening: »

hanging by a tack.

4. a) the act of fastening lightly or temporarily. b) the condition of being fastened this way.

5. adhesiveness; tackiness.

6. Nautical. a) the direction in which a ship moves in regard to the direction of the wind and the position of her sails. When on port tack, a ship has the wind on her left. b) a slanting or zigzag course against the wind. c) one of the straight runs in a zigzag course. d) the act of zigzagging; turn from one straight run to the next.

7. Figurative. any zigzag movement.

8. Figurative. a course of action or conduct: »

To demand what he wanted was the wrong tack to take with his father. They think the House will take a tougher tack on dollar-a-year men (Wall Street Journal).

9. Nautical. the rope to hold in place the outer lower corner of some sails. The rope securing a course on a square-rigged ship and the rope securing a studding-sail to the end of the boom are both tacks. a) the corner held by any such rope, such as the forward lower corner of a fore-and-aft sail.

10. saddles, harnesses, and other equipment for horses.

11. a bar or strip to hold up shoots or stems, in gardening.

12. a brace to hold a pipe to a wall.

–v.t.

1. to fasten with tacks (short nails): »

to tack up a notice. She tacked mosquito netting over the windows.

2. to sew with temporary stitches.

3. Figurative. to join together, often artificially or clumsily: »

Traditional tales, tacked together without regard to place or chronology (John Lingard).

4. Figurative. to attach (something separate); add (a supplement); append; annex: »

She tacked a postscript to the end of her letter.

5. Nautical. a) to sail (a ship) in a zigzag course against the wind. b) to turn (a ship) to sail at the same angle to the wind on the other side; change from one leg of a zigzag course to the next: »

to tack ship.

–v.i.

1. Nautical. of sailors or ships: a) to sail in a zigzag course into the wind: »

The ship was tacking, trying to make the harbor. The craft could tack…an art unknown to Europeans at the time of Columbus (Beals and Hoijer).

b) to turn and sail at the same angle to the wind on the other side.

2. Figurative. to move along any zigzag route.

3. Figurative. to change one's attitude, conduct, or course of action.

4. Figurative. to use indirect methods.

╂[< Anglo-French taque nail, clasp, Old French tache < Germanic root]

–tack´er, noun.

tack² «tak», noun.

1. things; stuff.

2. Slang. food: »

I thought the canteen tack the nastiest stuff I had ever tasted (D. C. Murray).

╂[origin uncertain]

tack³ «tak», noun. Scottish.

1. tenancy of land, especially leasehold tenure.

2. the tenure of a benefice.

3. the period of tenure.

╂[< Scottish tac, tak take]