tack

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

• noun Food, especially coarse or inferior foodstuffs.
• noun A short, light nail with a sharp point and a flat head.
• noun A rope for holding down the weather clew of a course.
• noun A rope for hauling the outer lower corner of a studdingsail to the boom.
• noun The part of a sail, such as the weather clew of a course, to which this rope is fastened.
• noun The lower forward corner of a fore-and-aft sail.
• noun The position of a vessel relative to the trim of its sails.
• noun The act of changing from one position or direction to another.
• noun The distance or leg sailed between changes of position or direction.
• noun An approach to accomplishing a goal or a method of dealing with a problem.
• noun A large, loose stitch made as a temporary binding or as a marker.
• noun Stickiness, as that of a newly painted surface.
• intransitive verb To fasten or attach with a tack or tacks.
• intransitive verb To fasten or mark (cloth or a seam, for example) with a loose basting stitch.
• intransitive verb To put together loosely and arbitrarily.
• intransitive verb To add as an extra item; append.
• intransitive verb Nautical To bring (a vessel) into the wind in order to change course or direction.
• intransitive verb To change the direction of a sailing vessel, especially by turning the bow into and past the direction of the wind.
• intransitive verb To sail a zigzag course upwind by repeatedly executing such a maneuver.
• intransitive verb To change tack.
• intransitive verb To change one's course of action.
• noun The harness for a horse, including the bridle and saddle.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To attack.
• noun A variety of pistol used by the Highlanders of Scotland. See dag, 2.
• noun A distinctive taste or flavor; a continuing or abiding smack.
• noun Side: said of a speculator's relationship to the market.
• noun A spot; a stain; a blemish.
• noun A short, sharp-pointed nail or pin, used as a fastener by being driven or thrust-through the material to be fastened into the substance to which it is to be fixed.
• noun In needlework, a long stitch, usually one of a number intended to hold two pieces of stuff together, preparatory to more thorough sewing. Compare basting.
• noun Nautical: A heavy rope used to confine the foremost lower corner of the courses; also, a rope by which the outer lower corner of a studdingsail is pulled out to the end of the boom.
• noun The part of a sail to which the tack is fastened, the foremost lower corner of a course, jib, or staysail, or the outer lower corner of a studdingsail.
• noun Hence— The course of a ship in relation to the position of her sails: as, the starboard tack, or port tack (the former when she is close-hauled with the wind on her starboard, the latter when close-hauled with the wind on her port side).
• noun A temporary change of a few points in the direction of sailing, as to take advantage of a side wind; one of a series of movements of a vessel to starboard and port alternately out of the general line of her course.
• noun Hence A determinate course or change of course in general; a tactical line or turn of procedure; a mode of action or conduct adopted or pursued for some specific reason.
• noun In plumbing, the fastening of a pipe to a wall or the like, consisting of a strip of lead soldered to the pipe, nailed to the support, and turned back over the nails.
• noun Something that is attached or fixed in place, or that holds, adheres, or sticks.
• noun The condition of being tacked or fastened; stability; fixedness; firm grasp; reliance. See to hold tack, below.
• noun In the arts, an adhesive or sticky condition, as of a partially dried, varnished, painted, or oiled surface; stickiness.
• noun In Scots law, a contract by which the use of a thing is let for hire; a lease: as, a tack of land.
• noun Hence— Land occupied on lease; a rented farm.
• noun Hired pasturage; the renting of pasture for cattle.
• noun Substance; solidity: spoken of the food of cattle and other stock.
• noun Bad food.
• noun Bad malt liquor.
• noun Food in general; fare: as, hard tack, coarse fare; soft tack, good fare.
• noun Specifically, among sailors, soldiers, etc., bread, or anything of the bread kind, distinguished as hard tack (or hardtack) and soft tack. See hardtack.
• To fasten by tacks; join, attach, or secure by some slight or temporary fastening: as, to tack down a carpet; to tack up a curtain; to tack a shoe to the last; to tack parts of a garment together with pins or by basting preparatory to sewing.