Forms: 4–6 tak, takk(e, 5–7 tacke, 6 take, (pl. tax), 5– tack. [TACK sb.1 and v.1 go together, and are doublets of TACHE sb.2, v.2 (q.v.), though forms in k or q are not recorded in OF., and the etymological history is obscure. For the ulterior etymology Diez compares Ger. zacken prong, MHG. zacke, Du. tak bough; so also Kluge. (The occurrence of Ir. taca, Gael. tacaid nail, tack, peg, Breton tach small nail, has suggested a Celtic origin for the root tac-, but this Thurneysen rejects.) App. most of the senses of the sb., including sense 5, were derived from the vb., but the nautical senses of the vb. arose out of sense 5 of the sb., and in their turn gave rise to senses 6 and 7.]
I. That which fastens or attaches, etc.
1. That which fastens one thing to another, or things together: applied to a fibula or clasp, a buckle, a hook or stud fitting into an eye or loop, a nail, or the like. Obs. exc. as in senses 2, 3.
13[?]. Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., lii. 410. He bot a bite þat made vs blak, Til fruit weore tied on treo wiþ tak; O fruit for anoþer.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 485/2. Takke (H., P. or botun), fibula, fixula.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, lxxii. 69. Unto the crose or breid and lenth, Syne tyit him on with greit irne takkis.
1617. Minsheu, Ductor, A tacke or hooke, vid. Buckle, Clasp.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 70. The tackes put into the loops did couple the curtains of the tent, and sew the tent together.
1696. Lond. Gaz., No. 3228/4. Lost…, 3 pair of black Stays,… one with black Buckles, in black Tacks and black Loops.
b. The frænum of the tongue (in a tongue-tied person).
1671. Livingston, Lett., in Wodrow Soc. Sel. Biog. (1845), I. 247. The sight of the father’s danger brake the tack of a son’s tongue who was tongue-tacked from birth.
2. spec. (perh. orig. short for tack-nail: see 12 a.) A small sharp-pointed nail of iron or brass, usually with a flat and comparatively large head, used for fastening a light or thin object to something more solid, especially in a slight or temporary manner, so as to admit of easy undoing.
Tacks are distinguished according to their use, as carpet-tack, one used for fixing a carpet on the foor; their action, as thumb-tack, one pushed in with the thumb, as a drawing-pin; their material, as brass tack, iron tack, TIN-TACK.
[1463, etc.: see tack-nail in 12 a.]
1574. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Eliz. (1908), 237. Tackes One Thowsand.
a. 1585. Polwart, Flyting w. Montgomerie, 558. His lugs … That to the Tron hes tane so many a tacke.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXIV. xiv. 514. Yron … for nailes, studs, and tackes, emploied about greeves and leg-harneis.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 292/1. Two sorts of tacks used by [shoemakers], the Sole Tack … and the Heel Tack.
1703. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 53. Drive in a small Tack on each side.
1745. P. Thomas, Jrnl. Anson’s Voy., 259. The Scale … is made of Bambo, the Divisions distinguished by small Brass Tacks.
1851. D. Jerrold, St. Giles, xvi. 168. At his work, driving tin tacks into a baby’s coffin.
b. (See quot.)
1847–78. Halliwell, s.v., A wooden peg for hanging dresses on is sometimes called a tack.
3. Technical uses. a. Gardening. A fastening for shoots, etc., consisting of a strip or band secured at each end to a wall or the like. b. Plumbing. A strip of lead having one end soldered to a pipe, and the other fastened to a wall or support.
1545. Rates of Customs, a vj. Corke takkes the thousande x.s.
1615. W. Lawson, Country Housew. Gard. (1626), 7. To plant Apricockes, Cheries, and Peaches, by a wall, and with tacks, and other meanes to spread them vpon, and fasten them to a wall.
1658. Evelyn, Fr. Gard. (1675), 34. They do extreamly ill, when they fagot, and bundle together a great many small twiggs, in one tack. Ibid. (1693), De la Quint. Compl. Gard., II. 41.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 408. Two broad pieces of lead, called tacks, are attached to the back lap-joints and spread out, right and left, for fastening the [socket] pipes to the wall by means of wall-hooks of iron.
1877. S. S. Hellyer, Plumber, ii. 33. When there are no chases, and the pipes are fixed on tacks, the tacks should be strong.
4. An act of tacking or fastening together, now esp. in a slight or temporary way; a stitch, esp. a long slight stitch used in fastening seams, etc., preparatory to the permanent sewing; a very slight fastening or tie, by which a thing is loosely held, as hanging by a tack.
1705. Vanbrugh, Confed., V. ii. If dear mother will give us her blessing, the parson shall give us a tack [cf. TACK v.1 1 c].
1808. Jamieson, s.v., It hings by a tack, it has a very slight hold.
1878. Dickinson, Cumbld. Gloss., Teck, Tack, a stitch, ‘A teck i’ time seavvs nine.’
Mod. Give it a tack, to hold it together until there is time to stitch it.
b. Adhesiveness, tackiness; esp. in Bookbinding, ‘a slight stickiness remaining in leather before the varnish or dressing is quite dry’ (C. Davenport).
1908. Academy, 21 April, 656/1. It is very cunningly reproduced, even to the extent of a suggestion of a slight ‘tack’ belonging to old leather.
II. Nautical and derived senses. (Sense 5 is a special application of 1, and is the origin of sense 7 of the vb., whence again comes sense 6 here.)
5. A rope, wire, or chain and hook, used to secure to the ship’s side the windward clews or corners of the courses (lower square sails) of a sailing ship when sailing close hauled on a wind; also the rope, wire, or lashing used to secure amidships the wind-ward lower end of a fore-and-aft sail.
To bring, get, haul, or put the tacks aboard (= to the board), to haul the tacks into such a position as to trim the sails to the wind, to set sail. To bring or have the starboard or port tacks aboard, to set the sails to, or sail with, the wind on the side mentioned. Also transf. used allusively in reference to travelling by land.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (Roxb.), 111. My Lord paid him for iij. hausers, a peir takkes, a ratling line for Chewdes … xv.s.
1486. Naval Accts. Hen. VII. (1896), 13. A payre of takkes & a payr of shets weying DCCxlj lb.
1582. L. Ward, in Hakluyt, Voy., III. 757. Wee brought our tacks aboord, and stoode along West by North and West larboord tacked.
1611. Cotgr., Coytes, Tackes; great Ropes vsed about the (maine) sayle of a ship.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Seamen, 28. The wind veares, git your star-boord tacks aboord. Ibid. (1637), Seaman’s Gram., v. 23. Tackes are great ropes which hauing a wall-knot at one end seased into the clew of the saile, and so reeued first thorow the chestres, and then commeth in at a hole in the ships sides, this doth carry forward the clew of the saile to make it stand close by a wind.
1688. J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 984. They must there bring the contrary Tack on Board [i.e., to put the vessel on the other tack].
1747. Gentl. Mag., 521. The wind shifted 3 or 4 points, which obliged us to tack, and make more sail, by hauling our main tack on board.
1825. H. B. Gascoigne, Nav. Fame, 52. To set each Course the Tacks they Haul on Board, Then drag the Sheets aft, as they can afford.
1846. Young, Naut. Dict., The tack of a fore and aft sail is the rope which keeps down its lower forward clue; and of a studding sail that which keeps down its lower outer clue. The tack of a lower studding-sail is called the Out-Haul.
transf. 1780. S. Curwen, Jrnl. & Lett., 22 June (1864), 277. Discouraged from proceeding further by water,… and taking, as the sailors phrase it, our London tack on board, [we] proceeded the next stage of fifteen miles.
1820. A. Gifford, MS. Acc., 7 Sept. We took our land tacks on board of our waggon, and directed our course west souwest for New London.
b. The lower windward corner of a sail, to which the tack (rope or chain) is attached.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Aboard main tack! the order to draw the main-tack, i. e. the lower corner of the main-sail, down to the chess-tree.
1851. Kipling, Sailmaking (ed. 2), 5. In all triangular sails and in those four-sided sails wherein the head is not parallel to the foot, the foremost corner at the foot is called the tack.
1904. F. T. Bullen, Creatures of Sea, xvii. 232. The peak of the sail is dropped and the tack hoisted; in sea parlance, the sail is ‘scandalised.’
† c. Tack of a flag: see quot. Obs.
1794. Rigging & Seamanship, I. 176. Tack of a Flag, a line spliced into the eye at the bottom of the tabling, for securing the fag to the haliard.
6. An act of tacking. (TACK v.1 7); hence, the direction given to a ship’s course by tacking; the course of a ship in relation to the direction of the wind and the position of her sails; a course or movement obliquely opposed to the direction of the wind; one of a consecutive series of such movements to one side and the other alternately made by a sailing vessel, in order to reach a point to windward.
A ship is said to be on the starboard or port tack as the wind comes from starboard or port. At each change of tack, the relative positions of the tack and sheet of the courses are reversed.
1614. Sir R. Dudley, in Fortesc. Papers (Camden), 9. Being fare more swyfte then the gallie … (espetiallye uppon a tacke).
1666. Pepys, Diary, 4 July. Even one of our flag-men in the fleete did not know which tacke lost the wind, or which kept it, in this last engagement.
1676. Lond. Gaz., No. 1108/1. Their Admiral was lost by accident, or rather neglect of the Seamen, who omitting upon a Tack to fasten the Guns, they run all to one side, and over-set the ship.
1694. Narborough, etc., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. 165. Before the Ship could Ware and bring to upon the other Tack, She struck.
1749. Capt. Standige, in Naval Chron., III. 207. We kept working the Ship in the wind’s eye, tack and tack.
1779. King, Cook’s Voy. Pacific, VI. ix. (1785), III. 418. During the afternoon, we kept standing on our tacks, between the island of Potoe, and the Grand Ladrone.
1804. W. Layman, in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1845), V. 496. Turning to the Westward, against the wind, some tacks do not exceed one mile.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xiii. That they should make short tacks with her, to weather the point.
1885. Law Times, Rep., LIII. 54/1. The J. M. Stevens was proceeding under all sail close-hauled on the port tack.
b. fig. and transf. A zigzag course on land.
1788. J. May, Jrnl. & Lett. (1873), 31. I … advanced as fast as possible to finish my land tacks.
1813. Salem Gaz., 22 Oct., 3/2. Saw 2 four horse wagons, standing abreast, upon their larboard tacks, head towards us.
1854. J. L. Stephens, Centr. Amer., 363. I could not walk, so I beat up making the best tacks I could, and stopping every time I put about.
1893. Q. [Couch], Delect. Duchy, 305. Bontigo’s Van … scaling the acclivity … in a series of short tacks.
7. fig. A course or line of conduct or action; implying change or difference from some preceding or other course.
1675. V. Alsop, Anti-Sozzo, i. 29. No man more reall when he offers an Injury, not more complemental in his Courtesies; for he’s just now standing upon a Tack.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1709), 72. His Business will be to follow the Loudest Cry, and make his Tack with the Wind.
1795. Burke, Lett. to Ld. Auckland, Wks. IX. Pref. 22. Through our publick life, we have generally sailed on somewhat different tacks.
1811. T. Creevey, in Cr. Papers (1904), I. vii. 140. They are upon a new tack in consulting publick opinion.
1901. Scotsman, 8 March, 6/5. The bill … scemed to proceed upon the wrong tack.
b. A circuitous course of conduct.
1869. Ballantyne, Deanhaugh, 117 (E.D.D.). Your nephew … canna be up to sae mony shifts an’ tacks as you.
III. That which is tacked on or appended.
8. Something tacked on or attached as an addition or rider; an addendum, supplement, appendix; spec. in parliamentary usage, A clause relating to some extraneous matter, appended, in order to secure its passing, to a bill, esp. a bill of supply.
1705. in Hearne, Collect., 10 Oct. (O.H.S.), I. 54. All the World’s a general Tack Of one thing to another. Why then about one Honest Tack Do Fools make such a Pother?
1712. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 10 May. The parliament will hardly be up till June. We were like to be undone some days ago with a tack.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, VII. (1823), V. 177. Some tacks had been made to money-bills in king Charles’s time.
1768. Ld. Hillsborough, in North Car. Col. Rec., VII. 868. Appointed by a Law … especially passed for that purpose, and not by way of Tack to a Law for other purposes.
1787. Minor, I. xiv. 52. My mother to this added the following tack.
1879. Minto, Defoe, v. 64. The Lords refused to pass the Money Bill till the tack was withdrawn.
b. Tack-on: the act of tacking something on, or that which is tacked on or added. colloq.
1905. Outlook, 11 Nov., 664/1. She has not the passion for a tack-on which is general in this country.
9. dial. (some doubtfully belonging here). a. A hanging shelf: see quot. 1847–78. b. Each of the two nibs or handles of a scythe. c. Coal-mining. A temporary prop or scaffold: see quots.
a. 1446. Yatton Churchw. Acc. (Som. Rec. Soc.), 85. It. y payde to Hurneman for ij takys vc.
c. 1730. J. Poynter, Dorset Voc., in N. & Q., 6th Ser. VIII. 45/2. A tack, a shelf.
1847–78. Halliwell, Tack,… A shelf. A kind of shelf made of crossed bars of wood suspended from the ceiling, on which to put bacon, &c.
1862. T. Hughes, in Macm. Mag., V. 246/1. An ther wur beacon upon rack An plates to yet it upon tack.
b. a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Tack,… the handle of a sithe.
1892. P. H. Emerson, Son of Fens, 131. Some on ’em fitting new sticks to the scythes, some on ’em putting in tacks.
c. 1849. Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., Tack, a small prop of coal, sometimes left … to support it until the kirving is finished, except knocking out the tack.
1883. Gresley, Coal Mining Gloss., Tack.… (Som[erset].). A wooden scaffold put into a pit-shaft for temporary purposes.
IV. As a quality.
10. Hold; holding quality; adherence, endurance, stability, strength, substance, solidity. Now dial.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, II. 1868. Who þat geynstryueth schal haue litel tak.
c. 1425. Cast. Persev., 2987, in Macro Plays, 166. Tresor, tresor, it hathe no tak.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 168. What tacke in a pudding, saith greedie gut wringer.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. lxvi. 404. There will neuer bee any holde or lacke in it.
1651–66. Caryl, Expos. Job xxii. 25 (1676), 2255. He should find that there was tack in it, that it was solid silver, or silver that had strength in it.
1884. Cheshire Gloss., Tack,… hold, confidence, reliance. There is no tack in such a one, he is not to be trusted.
b. Adhesive quality, stickiness: cf. TACKY a.
18[?]. Gilder’s Man., 28 (Cent. Dict.). Let your work stand until so dry as only to have sufficient tack to hold your leaf.
† 11. Phrases. a. To hold, rarely have, tack with (to), to hold one’s own with, hold one’s ground with, keep up with; to be even with or equal to; to match. Obs.
1412–20. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. 4259. Here lith on ded, þer a-noþer wounded, So þat þei myȝt with them haue no tak.
a. 1518. Skelton, Magnyf., 2084. A thousande pounde with Lyberte may holde no tacke.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 71. Secular Priests, whom no English Iesuit is able to hold tacke withall.
1652. Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 227. The incomparable Crichtoun had … held tack to all the disputants.
1658. J. Harrington, Prerog. Pop. Govt., I. xii. Wks. (1700), 317. Fourteen Years had their Commonwealth held tack with the Romans, in Courage, Conduct, and Virtue.
c. 1695. in Curwen, Hist. Booksellers (1873), 29. To make the parallel hold tack, Methinks there’s little lacking.
† b. To hold (a person, etc.) tack (to tack): to be a match for; to hold at bay. Obs.
1555. W. Watreman, Fardle Facions, II. vi. 150. Thei [Parthians] helde the Romaines suche tacke, that in sondrie warres they gaue them great ouerthrowes.
1606. Sir G. Goosecappe, III. i. I am sure our Ladies hold our Lords tacke for Courtship, and yet the French Lords put them downe.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., xi. 48. Faire Chester, call’d of old Carelegion,… the faithfull station then, So stoutly held to tack by those neere North-Wales men.
1615. Hoby, Curry-combe, i. 3. As if I haue not a good dish of Oysters, and a cold pye at home to hold you tacke.
1706. Mrs. Centlivre, Basset-Table, II. Wks. (1723), 221. Ay, give me the woman that can hold me tack in my own dialect.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, s.v. Hold, Phr. ‘to hold one tack,’ to keep him close to the point.
† c. To bear, hold tack, to be substantial, strong, or lasting; to hold out, endure, hold one’s own.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 28. And Martilmas beefe doth beare good tack, when countrie folke doe dainties lack.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 164. It serueth to hold tacke, till by inuasion or otherwise the Iesuits may worke their feate.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. III. 277. If this twig be made of Wood That will hold tack.
1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., 19. With good Milk pottage I held tack.
† d. To hold, keep tack, stand to tack: see quots.
1611. Cotgr., Ester à vne chose convenuë, to keepe touch; hold tacke, stand to a bargaine.
1686. F. Spence, trans. Varillas’ Ho. Medicis, 305. The correspondence he had in that place not keeping tack at the time prefixt.
† e. To be half tack with: (?) to be midway between in position or quality. Obs.
1567. Maplet, Gr. Forest, 60. Reede is halfe tack with the Herbe and tree, but in force or growth, aboue the Herbe. And nothing in strength to the tree his comparison.
V. 12. attrib. and Comb. a. in sense 2: tack-claw, -extractor, -lifter, -puller, a tool for extracting tacks or small nails from a carpet, etc.; tack-comb, a row of tacks cast in the form of a hair-comb for use in a shoe-making machine; tack-driver, a machine that automatically places and drives a series of tacks; also = tack-hammer; tack-hammer, a light hammer for driving tacks; tack-mill, a factory for making tacks; † tack-nail, a tack, tacket, or hob-nail; tack-rivet, a small metal rivet; tack work: see quot.
1889. Talmage, in Voice (N. Y.), 28 Feb. Much [church work] amounts to … a *tack-hammer smiting the Gibraltar.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right (1899), 11. Which made the heavy tool tremble in my grasp like a tack hammer.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Tack-lifter, a tool for taking up tacks from carpets on a floor.
1884. H. D. Lloyd, in N. Amer. Rev., June, 546. The *tack-mills in the combination run about three days in the week.
1463. in Rogers, Agric. & Pr., III. 556/3. 1 c. *taknail 4d.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 237. Set some tacke naylis, or racke naylis arowe.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Broca, a shooemakers tacke naile.
1874. Thearle, Naval Archit., 71. The side plates, or bars, are connected to the vertical plate by … small rivets, termed *‘tack rivets.’
1879. C. Hibbs, in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 299/2. *‘Tack work,’ which means brass-headed nails, hooks, sash and drawer knobs, and little things of that sort.
b. in sense 5: tack-block, -earing, -end, -lashing, -piece (see quot.), -tackle; tack-pins, belaying pins of the fife-rail (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 1867).
1772. Cook, Voy., III. ii. II. 17. When they change tacks they throw the vessel up in the wind, ease off the sheet, and bring the heel or *tack-end of the yard to the other end of the boat, and the sheet in like manner.
1865. Macgregor, Rob Roy in Baltic (1867), 296. The tack end of the boom is made fast to the mast by a flat piece of leather.
1711. W. Sutherland, Shipbuild. Assist., 164. *Tack-piece, that to which the Fore-sail is tack’d down.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1776), *Tack-tackle, a small tackle used occasionally to pull down the tack of the principal sails of a ship to their respective stations.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 82. Tack tackle … a tackle from the tack of the spanker to the deck.
