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tack up

 - 3 dictionary results
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tack

1  [tak] ,
Use tack up in a Sentence
–noun
1. a short, sharp-pointed nail, usually with a flat, broad head.
2. Nautical.
a. a rope for extending the lower forward corner of a course.
b. the lower forward corner of a course or fore-and-aft sail.
c. the heading of a sailing vessel, when sailing close-hauled, with reference to the wind direction.
d. a course run obliquely against the wind.
e. 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, esp. one differing from some preceding or other course.
4. one of the movements of a zigzag course on land.
5. a stitch, esp. a long stitch used in fastening seams, preparatory to a more thorough sewing.
6. a fastening, esp. 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.
–verb (used with object)
9. to fasten by a tack or tacks: to tack a rug to the floor.
10. to secure by some slight or temporary fastening.
11. to join together; unite; combine.
12. to attach as something supplementary; append; annex (often fol. by on or onto).
13. Nautical.
a. to change the course of (a sailing vessel) to the opposite tack.
b. to navigate (a sailing vessel) by a series of tacks.
14. to equip (a horse) with tack.
–verb (used without object)
15. Nautical.
a. 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: He ordered us to tack at once.
b. (of a sailing vessel) to change course in this way.
c. to proceed to windward by a series of courses as close to the wind as the vessel will sail.
16. to take or follow a zigzag course or route.
17. to change one's course of action, conduct, ideas, etc.
18. to equip a horse with tack (usually fol. by up): Please tack up quickly.
—Idiom
19. on the wrong tack, under a misapprehension; in error; astray: His line of questioning began on the wrong tack.
Origin:
1300–50; (n.) ME tak buckle, clasp, nail (later, tack); c. G Zacke prong, D tak twig; (v.) ME tacken to attach, deriv. of the n.; see tache, attach

Related forms:
tacker, noun
tackless, adjective

Synonyms:
12. affix, fasten, add.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Word Origin & History

tack  (1)
"clasp, hook, fastener," 1296, from O.N.Fr. taque "nail, pin, peg," probably from a Gmc. source (cf. M.Du. tacke "twig, spike," Low Ger. takk "tine, pointed thing," Ger. Zacken "sharp point, tooth, prong"); perhaps related to tail. Meaning "small, sharp nail with a flat head" is attested from 1463. Verb sense of "to attach as a supplement" (with suggestion of hasty or arbitrary proceeding) is attested from 1683. The meaning "rope to hold the corner of a sail in place" is first recorded 1481; hence the verb meaning "sail into the wind," first recorded 1557, which lead to the fig. sense of "course or line of conduct or action" (1675).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Legal Dictionary

Main Entry: tack
Function: transitive verb
: to combine (a use, possession, or period of time) with that of another esp. in order to satisfy the statutory time period for acquiring title to or a prescriptive easement in the property of a third party tack successive adverse possessions of land —Hall v. Kerlee, 461 South Eastern Reporter, Second Series 911 (1995)>
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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