n. [D. tak, L. Ger. tack, H. Ger. zacke, Dan. tak, takke, Sw. tagg, Ir. taca, Gael. tacaid, Armor. & Corn. tach.]
1. That which is attached; a supplement; an appendix. [Obs.]
Some tacks had been made to money-bills in King Charles's reign. Burnet.
- A small, short, sharp-pointed nail, usually having a broad head.
- (Naut.) (a.) A rope used to confine the foremost lower corners of the courses and stay-sails, when the wind crosses the ship's course obliquely; also, a rope employed to pull the lower corner of a studding-sail to the boom. (b.) The part of a sail to which the tack is usually fastened; the foremost lower corner of the courses. (c.) The course of a ship in regard to the position of her sails; as, the starboard tack, or larboard tack; the former when she is close-hauled with the wind on her starboard, the latter when close-hauled with the wind on her larboard.
- (Scots Law.) A contract by which the use of a thing is set, or let, for hire; a lease; as, a tack of land. Burrill.
- A lease; a bargain or contract. [Prov. Eng.]
- Hold; confidence; reliance. [Prov. Eng.]
Hard tack, a large kind of hard crackers, much used for food by sailors and soldiers. — Tack of a flag, a line spliced into the eye at the bottom of the tabling, for securing the flag to the halliards. — To hold tack, to last or hold out. “But rebellions on all sides, stirred up by obdurate papists, and other tumults, with a plain war in Norfolk, holding tack against two of the king's generals, made them of force content themselves with what they had already done.” Milton.