Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A collection of items tied up or wrapped; a bundle.
  • noun A container made to be carried on the body of a person or animal.
  • noun The amount, as of food, that is processed and packaged at one time or in one season.
  • noun A small package containing a standard number of identical or similar items.
  • noun A complete set of related items.
  • noun Informal A large amount; a heap.
  • noun A group of animals, such as dogs or wolves, that run and hunt together.
  • noun A gang of people.
  • noun An organized troop having common interests.
  • noun A mass of large pieces of floating ice driven together.
  • noun Material, such as towels, sheets, or blankets that are used to swathe a patient or body part.
  • noun A material, such as gauze, that is therapeutically inserted into a body cavity or wound.
  • noun An ice pack used to reduce pain and inflammation.
  • noun A cold pack.
  • noun A hot pack.
  • noun A cosmetic paste that is applied to the skin, allowed to dry, and then rinsed off.
  • intransitive verb To fold, roll, or combine into a bundle; wrap up.
  • intransitive verb To put into a receptacle for transporting or storing.
  • intransitive verb To fill up with items.
  • intransitive verb To process and put into containers in order to preserve, transport, or sell.
  • intransitive verb To bring together (persons or things) closely; crowd together.
  • intransitive verb To fill up tight; cram.
  • intransitive verb To wrap (a patient) in a pack.
  • intransitive verb To insert a pack into (a body cavity or wound).
  • intransitive verb To wrap tightly for protection or to prevent leakage.
  • intransitive verb To press together; compact firmly.
  • intransitive verb Informal To carry, deliver, or have available for action.
  • intransitive verb To send unceremoniously.
  • intransitive verb To constitute (a voting panel) by appointment, selection, or arrangement in such a way that it is favorable to one's purposes or point of view; rig.
  • intransitive verb To place one's belongings in boxes or luggage for transporting or storing.
  • intransitive verb To be susceptible of compact storage.
  • intransitive verb To form lumps or masses; become compacted.
  • idiom (pack it in) To cease work or activity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In tanning, a workmen's name for a lot of hides placed in the same pit to undergo the liming process.
  • To have in one's baggage, that is, in one's possession; possess.
  • To transport goods as a business: as, to pack over the trail.
  • To put together compactly in a bundle, bale, package, box, barrel, or other receptacle, especially for transportation, or convenience in storing or stowing; make up into a package, bale, bundle, etc.: as, to pack one's things for a journey.
  • To fill with things arranged more or less methodically; stow: as, to pack a chest or a hamper.
  • To arrange or dispose with a view to future use and activity; especially, to prepare and put up in suitable vessels for preservation, or in a form suitable for market: as, to pack herrings; to pack pork, fruit, eggs, etc.
  • In hydrotherapy, to envelop (the body or some part of it) in wet cloths, which may be covered over with dry ones.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pak, possibly of Low German origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English pak

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