tack

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“
Blu-tack is also limited somewhat given their weight as well.

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Definitions (89)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (22)

  1. noun A short, light nail with a sharp point and a flat head.
  2. noun Nautical A rope for holding down the weather clew of a course.
  3. noun Nautical A rope for hauling the outer lower corner of a studdingsail to the boom.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (51)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

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This word has been looked up 157 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

nail ·  spur ·  pin ·  buckle ·  harness ·  utensil ·  glue ·  bolt

Used in the same contextWord Family

tack:   tacks ·  tacked ·  tacking
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (10)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. Middle English tak, fastener, from Old North French taque, probably of Germanic origin.
  2. Origin unknown.
  3. Short for tackle.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (7)

  1. from Middle English tak, takke; also assibilated tache (see tach, tache); from Old French taque (found only in the sense of ‘the back of a chimney’ (chimney-hook?), in Roquefort), assibilated tache (found only in the sense of ‘an instrument of fishing’ (fish-hook?), in Roquefort), a nail, hook, French dial. tache, a nail, = Provencal taca, tacca = Spanish Portuguese tacha (from F.?) = Italian tacca (Middle Latin reflex taxa, taschia, etc.), a nail, tack; cf. Irish taca, a nail, pin, fastening, Gael, tacaid, a tack, peg, Breton tach, a small nail; origin unknown; apparently orig. Celtic, and, if so, perhaps orig. with initial s (√ stak, √ stag?), akin to English stake, stick. Cf. Friesic tāk = Dutch tāk, a tine, prong, twig, branch, = Middle High German G. zacke, a tine, prong, tooth, twig, branch, = Danish tak, takke = Swedish tagg = Icelandic tāg, a twig. Some compare Greek δοκός, a beam, Sanskrit daçā. a fringe. Hence ult. attack, attach, detach. In most senses the noun is from the verb, which is itself in part an unassibilated form of tach, tache, v., or an aphetic form of attach (cf. tach for attack). Cf. tack, tack, etc.
  2. See the noun.
  3. By apheresis from attack.
  4. An unassibilated form of tache, or else a corruption of tact, touch: see tache, tact.
  5. Said to be a corruption of tact (cf. taste, ult. from the same source as tact). Cf. tack, tack.
  6. Origin obscure; by some supposed to be a transferred use of tack.
  7. Cf. dag.
 

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/tæk/
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