Slack \Slack\, n. [Cf. Slag.]
Small coal; also, coal dust; culm. --Raymond.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Slack \Slack\, n. [Icel. slakki a slope on a mountain edge.]
A valley, or small, shallow dell. [Prov. Eng.] --Grose.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Slack \Slack\, a. [Compar. Slacker; superl. Slackest.] [OE.
slak, AS. sleac; akin to OS. slak, OHG. slah, Prov. G.
schlack, Icel. slakr, Sw. slak; cf. Skr. s[.r]j to let loose,
to throw. Cf. Slake.]
Lax; not tense; not hard drawn; not firmly extended; as, a
slack rope.
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2. Weak; not holding fast; as, a slack hand. --Milton.
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3. Remiss; backward; not using due diligence or care; not
earnest or eager; as, slack in duty or service.
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The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as
some men count slackness. --2 Pet. iii.
9.
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4. Not violent, rapid, or pressing; slow; moderate; easy; as,
business is slack. "With slack pace." --Chaucer.
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C?sar . . . about sunset, hoisting sail with a slack
southwest, at midnight was becalmed. --Milton.
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Slack in stays (Naut.), slow in going about, as a ship.
Slack water, the time when the tide runs slowly, or the
water is at rest; or the interval between the flux and
reflux of the tide.
Slack-water navigation, navigation in a stream the depth of
which has been increased, and the current diminished, by a
dam or dams.
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Syn: Loose; relaxed; weak; remiss; backward; abated;
diminished; inactive; slow; tardy; dull.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Slack \Slack\, Slacken \Slack"en\, v. i. [imp. & p. p.
Slacked, Slackened; p. pr. & vb. n. Slacking,
Slackening.] [See Slack, a.]
1. To become slack; to be made less tense, firm, or rigid; to
decrease in tension; as, a wet cord slackens in dry
weather.
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2. To be remiss or backward; to be negligent.
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3. To lose cohesion or solidity by a chemical combination
with water; to slake; as, lime slacks.
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4. To abate; to become less violent.
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Whence these raging fires
Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames.
--Milton.
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5. To lose rapidity; to become more slow; as, a current of
water slackens.
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6. To languish; to fail; to flag.
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7. To end; to cease; to desist; to slake. [Obs.]
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That through your death your lineage should slack.
--Chaucer.
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They will not of that firste purpose slack.
--Chaucer.
[1913 Webster] Slack
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Slack \Slack\, Slacken \Slack"en\, v. t.
1. To render slack; to make less tense or firm; as, to slack
a rope; to slacken a bandage. --Wycklif (Acts xxvii. 40)
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2. To neglect; to be remiss in. [Obs.] --Shak.
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Slack not the pressage. --Dryden.
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3. To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water;
to slake; as, to slack lime.
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4. To cause to become less eager; to repress; to make slow or
less rapid; to retard; as, to slacken pursuit; to slacken
industry. "Rancor for to slack." --Chaucer.
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I should be grieved, young prince, to think my
presence
Unbent your thoughts, and slackened 'em to arms.
--Addison.
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In this business of growing rich, poor men should
slack their pace. --South.
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With such delay
Well plased, they slack their course. --Milton.
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5. To cause to become less intense; to mitigate; to abate; to
ease.
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To respite, or deceive, or slack thy pain
Of this ill mansion. --Milton.
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Air-slacked lime, lime slacked by exposure to the air, in
consequence of the absorption of carton dioxide and water,
by which it is converted into carbonate of lime and
hydrate of lime.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Slack \Slack\, adv.
Slackly; as, slack dried hops.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Slack \Slack\, n.
The part of anything that hangs loose, having no strain upon
it; as, the slack of a rope or of a sail.
[1913 Webster] Slack
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
slack
adj 1: not tense or taut; "the old man's skin hung loose and gray";
"slack and wrinkled skin"; "slack sails"; "a slack
rope" [syn: loose]
2: lacking in strength or firmness or resilience; "flaccid
muscles"; "took his lax hand in hers"; "gave a limp
handshake"; "a limp gesture as if waving away all desire
to know" G.K.Chesterton; "a slack grip" [syn: flaccid, lax,
limp]
3: flowing with little speed as e.g. at the turning of the
tide; "slack water"
4: lacking in rigor or strictness; "such lax and slipshod ways
are no longer acceptable"; "lax in attending classes";
"slack in maintaining discipline" [syn: lax]
n 1: dust consisting of a mixture of small coal fragments and
coal dust and dirt that sifts out when coal is passed
over a sieve
2: a noticeable deterioration in performance or quality; "the
team went into a slump"; "a gradual slack in output"; "a
drop-off in attendance"; "a falloff in quality" [syn: slump,
drop-off, falloff, falling off]
3: a stretch of water without current or movement; "suddenly
they were in slack water"
4: the condition of being loose (not taut); "he hadn't counted
on the slackness of the rope" [syn: slackness]
5: a cord or rope or cable that is hanging loosely; "he took up
the slack"
v 1: avoid responsibilities and work, be idle
2: be inattentive to, or neglect; "He slacks his attention"
3: release tension on; "slack the rope"
4: make less active or fast; "He slackened his pace as he got
tired"; "Don't relax your efforts now" [syn: slacken, slack
up, relax]
5: become slow or slower; "Production slowed" [syn: slow, slow
down, slow up, slacken]
6: make less active or intense [syn: slake, abate]
7: become less in amount or intensity; "The storm abated"; "The
rain let up after a few hours" [syn: abate, let up, slack
off, die away]
8: cause to heat and crumble by treatment with water; "slack
lime" [syn: slake]
WordNet (r) 2.0
440 Moby Thesaurus words for "slack":
Laodicean, Micawberish, Olympian, Paphian, abandon, abate,
abatement, abeyant, aloof, ambling, anemic, apathetic, asthenic,
backward, bagging, baggy, bate, beat-up, bedraggled, behindhand,
benumbed, blah, blase, bloodless, blow out, blowzy, bone-lazy,
bones, cadging, careless, cataleptic, catatonic, cautious, chaff,
chambering, chicken, chintzy, choke, circumspect, claudicant,
coal dust, comatose, comb, coom, cowardly, crawling, creeping,
creeping like snail, culm, culpably negligent, cut, dallying, damp,
dangling, dead, deadwood, debilitated, decline, decrease, delay,
delaying, deliberate, delinquent, derelict, desensitized, detached,
diffuse, dilapidated, dilatory, dillydallying, diminish,
diminution, dishwater, disinterested, disjoin, disperse,
disregardful, do-nothing, dodge, dog it, doless, dopey, dormant,
douse, down, downturn, drabbletailed, draff, draggled,
draggletailed, dregs, dronish, drony, drooping, droopy, duck,
duck duty, dull, dust, dwindling, ease, ease off, ease up, easy,
easygoing, effete, ergophobic, etiolated, extinguish, faineant,
faint, faintish, faltering, feeble, filings, flabby, flaccid,
flagging, flapping, flat, floppy, foot-dragging, foul, free,
frowzy, frumpish, frumpy, garbage, gash, gentle, get out of, give,
goldbrick, gone, good-for-nothing, goof off, gradual, groggy,
grubby, gutless, halting, hanging, heartless, heavy, hebetudinous,
hobbling, hogwash, hopeless, husks, idle, imbecile, impotent,
imprecise, in a stupor, in abeyance, in rags, in suspense,
inactive, inactivity, inadvertent, inattentive, indifferent,
indolent, inert, infirm, informal, insouciant, jump, lackadaisical,
laggard, lagging, laissez-faire, languid, languorous, latent, lax,
lazy, leaden, leave, leave loose ends, leave undone, leavings,
lees, leisurely, lenient, lessening, let alone, let be, let dangle,
let down, let go, let loose, let up, let up on, lethargic,
lifeless, light, limber, limp, limping, lingering, listless, logy,
loitering, loose, loose-moraled, loosen, looseness, lull,
lumbering, lumpen, lustless, malinger, marrowless, messy, miss,
mitigate, moderate, mussy, neglect, neglectful, neglecting,
negligent, nerveless, nonaggressive, nonchalant, noninterfering,
nonrestrictive, not pull fair, numb, numbed, of easy virtue,
of loose morals, off, off-guard, offal, offscourings, omit, orts,
otiose, out, overindulgent, overly permissive, overpermissive,
parasitic, parings, pass over, pass up, passive, pause, permissive,
phlegmatic, pithless, play, pluckless, poking, poky, pooped,
potsherds, powerless, pretermit, procrastinate, procrastinating,
procrastinative, procrastinatory, promiscuous, put out, quench,
ragged, raggedy, rags, raspings, reduction, refuse, regardless,
relax, relaxed, release, reluctant, remiss, remit, resigned,
rickety, room, rubbery, ruinous, sagging, sapless, sauntering,
scamping, scatter, scourings, scraggly, scrap iron, scraps,
scrounging, scum, sedentary, seedy, shabby, shaky, shards,
shavings, shiftless, shirk, shoddy, shuffling, sinewless, skimping,
skip, skulk, slack off, slack up, slacken, slackening, slackness,
slag, slake, slatternly, sleeping, slide out of, slighting,
slip out of, slipshod, slop, sloppy, slops, slothful, slovenly,
slow, slow as death, slow as molasses, slow as slow, slow down,
slow up, slow-crawling, slow-foot, slow-going, slow-legged,
slow-moving, slow-paced, slow-poky, slow-running, slow-sailing,
slow-stepped, slow-up, sluggish, slumbering, slurring, sluttish,
smoldering, smother, snail-paced, snaillike, sneak out of, snuff,
snuff out, soft, soldier, soporific, sordid, spineless, spiritless,
sponging, spunkless, squalid, staggering, stagnant, stamp out,
standing, static, stifle, stoic, streaming, strengthless,
strolling, stubble, stupefied, supine, suspended, sweepings, swill,
tacky, tame, tares, tattered, tentative, tire, toddling, torpid,
tortoiselike, tottering, trifle, trudging, turtlelike, unaroused,
unbend, unbrace, uncaring, uncircumspect, unconcerned,
unenterprising, unglue, unguarded, unhardened, unhurried,
uninterested, unkempt, unlax, unleash, unneat, unnerved,
unrestrained, unrigorous, unsightly, unsteady, unstick, unstrain,
unstring, unstrung, untidy, untighten, unwary, unwatchful, unwind,
waddling, wanton, wastage, waste, waste matter, wastepaper,
wayward, weak, weaken, weakly, weeds, welsh, whorish, withdrawn,
work-shy
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
slack n. 1. Space allocated to a disk file but not actually used to
store useful information. The techspeak equivalent is `internal
fragmentation'. Antonym: hole. 2. In the theology of the Church of
the SubGenius, a mystical substance or quality that is the prerequisite
of all human happiness.
Since Unix files are stored compactly, except for the unavoidable
wastage in the last block or fragment, it might be said that "Unix has
no slack". See ha ha only serious.
Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001)
slack
1. Internal fragmentation. Space allocated
to a disk file but not actually used to store useful
information.
2. In the theology of the Church of the SubGenius,
a mystical substance or quality that is the prerequisite of
all human happiness.
Since Unix files are stored compactly, except for the
unavoidable wastage in the last block or fragment, it might be
said that "Unix has no slack".
See ha ha only serious.
[{Jargon File]
(1995-03-01)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
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