Definitions for tacks

• Definition
• Anagrams (63)

tacks tack

Spelling: [tak]

IPA: /tæk/

Tacks is a 5 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 11 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 12 points.

You can make 63 anagrams from letters in tacks (ackst).

Definitions for tacks

noun

1. a short, sharp-pointed nail, usually with a flat, broad head.
2. Nautical. a rope for extending the lower forward corner of a course. the lower forward corner of a course or fore-and-aft sail. the heading of a sailing vessel, when sailing close-hauled, with reference to the wind direction. a course run obliquely against the wind. one of the series of straight runs that make up the zigzag course of a ship proceeding to windward.
3. a course of action or conduct, especially one differing from some preceding or other course.
4. one of the movements of a zigzag course on land.
5. a stitch, especially a long stitch used in fastening seams, preparatory to a more thorough sewing.
6. a fastening, especially of a temporary kind.
7. stickiness, as of nearly dry paint or glue or of a printing ink or gummed tape; adhesiveness.
8. the gear used in equipping a horse, including saddle, bridle, martingale, etc.
9. food; fare.
10. a lease, especially on farmland.
11. a rented pasture.
12. a catch, haul, or take of fish.

Idioms

1. on the wrong tack, under a misapprehension; in error; astray:

verb (used with object)

1. to fasten by a tack or tacks:
2. to secure by some slight or temporary fastening.
3. to join together; unite; combine.
4. to attach as something supplementary; append; annex (often followed by on or onto).
5. Nautical. to change the course of (a sailing vessel) to the opposite tack. to navigate (a sailing vessel) by a series of tacks.
6. to equip (a horse) with tack.

verb (used without object)

1. Nautical. to change the course of a sailing vessel by bringing the head into the wind and then causing it to fall off on the other side: (of a sailing vessel) to change course in this way. to proceed to windward by a series of courses as close to the wind as the vessel will sail.
2. to take or follow a zigzag course or route.
3. to change one's course of action, conduct, ideas, etc.
4. to equip a horse with tack (usually followed by up):

Origin of tacks

1300-50; (noun) Middle English tak buckle, clasp, nail (later, tack); cognate with German Zacke prong, Dutch tak twig; (v.) Middle English tacken to attach, derivative of the noun; see

Examples for tacks

He stepped, when they alighted from the lift, as gingerly as though he trod on tacks.

Is 2014 going to be the year that Barack Obama tacks—and stays—left?

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks.

If you do not believe in tacks, will you believe in the touch of your fingers?

And although the GOP-led House was not likely to pass legislation to close the camp, there were other tacks Smith could pursue.

What about the tacks, the threads, the tapes that bound her?

She's sharp as tacks, and the least little 'break' on my part will let her in on my 'stall.'

Don't forget the stepladder, and plenty of tacks and string.

He had disliked the young man "tacks" when he met him in the Rathskeller.

The card had been torn from the tacks that held it to the panel.