TACKING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Tacking

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/tˈækɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Tacking n. (Law) A union of securities given at different times, all of which must be redeemed before an intermediate purchaser can interpose his claim. Note: The doctrine of tacking is not recognized in American law.

verb

Tack v. t. (past & past part. tacked; pres. part. tacking)

To fasten or attach. "In hopes of getting some commendam tacked to their sees." "And tacks the center to the sphere."

Especially, to attach or secure in a slight or hasty manner, as by stitching or nailing; as, to tack together the sheets of a book; to tack one piece of cloth to another; to tack on a board or shingle; to tack one piece of metal to another by drops of solder.

In parliamentary usage, to add (a supplement) to a bill; to append; often with on or to; as, to tack on a non-germane appropriation to a bill.

(Naut.) To change the direction of (a vessel) when sailing closehauled, by putting the helm alee and shifting the tacks and sails so that she will proceed to windward nearly at right angles to her former course. Note: In tacking, a vessel is brought to point at first directly to windward, and then so that the wind will blow against the other side.

Tack v. i. (Naut.) To change the direction of a vessel by shifting the position of the helm and sails; also (as said of a vessel), to have her direction changed through the shifting of the helm and sails. See Tack, v. t., 4. "Monk,... when he wanted his ship to tack to larboard, moved the mirth of his crew by calling out, "Wheel to the left.""

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Etymology of 'Tacking'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tacking" Quotes from Famous Books

... extreme. In one instant after the dull gray curtain falls over the ocean, each vessel is apparently as isolated as though alone on the Banks. A dory forty feet away is invisible. The great fleet of busy schooners, tacking back and forth, watching their boats, is suddenly, obliterated. Hoarse cries, the tooting of horns and the clanging of bells, sound through the misty air, and now and then a ghostly schooner glides by, perhaps scraping the very gunwale and carrying away bits of ...

— American Merchant Ships and Sailors • Willis J. Abbot

... more trying to the explorers than the navigation in which they were now engaged, day after day tacking off and on among large fields of ice, through which they in vain endeavoured to find a passage to the southward, with the constant risk, in thick weather, of running foul of icebergs, or of getting ...

— Captain Cook - His Life, Voyages, and Discoveries • W.H.G. Kingston

... these sails drew them on until, lo! on a sudden they looked upon a bridge, far newer and wider than the one behind them, spanning a river far more majestic than Avon. Of the white sails some were tacking against its current, others speeding down stream with a brisk breeze; and while the children stood there at gaze, a small puffing tug emerged from under the great arch of the bridge with a dozen barges astern ...

— True Tilda • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... tangles of rags and blood and tumbled hair. Then they would rest awhile and pant and swear. While they were affectionate they always spoke of each other as "ladies," but while they were fighting "strumpet" was the mildest name they could think of—and they could only make that do by tacking some sounding profanity to it. In their last fight, which was toward midnight, one of them bit off the other's finger, and then the officer interfered and put the "Greaser" into the "dark cell" to answer for it because ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... sailed away so far that I shut my eyes. I could not look after her any more. Then, as we rose on the top of a wave, I heard a rumble of words among the men, and I looked out, and saw she was tacking. Before long, she was sailing straight back to us, and the most dreadful moments of my life were ended. I had really not believed that she ...

— A Jolly Fellowship • Frank R. Stockton

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