slack

«slack» in Mova's school dictionary: loose, not pulled tight: a slack rope — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (slack, slacker, slackest); noun (slack — uncountable); verb (slack, slacks, slacked, slacking; slack off); plural noun slacks (trousers)

meaning for a pupil

1) Slack means loose, not pulled tight: a slack rope. tree →

2) Slack means not busy: business is slack in winter. tree →

3) (informal) Slack means lazy or careless: slack work. tree →

4) To slack or slack off is to work less hard than you should. tree →

5) (informal) "Cut someone some slack" means be less strict and more forgiving with them. tree →

6) (UK slang) "That's slack" can mean unfair or mean. tree →

7) Slacks are casual trousers. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science and PE, a rope or string that is slack hangs loose, while a taut one is tight; a slack tightrope wobbles. In school, a teacher may say "Don't slack off before the test." In everyday talk, "Give him some slack, he's new" asks for patience. Slack is also the name of a messaging app.

examples

• The rope went slack when he let go. tree →
• Pull the washing line tight so it isn't slack. tree →
• Business at the ice-cream van is slack in winter. tree →
• Stop slacking and finish your homework! tree →
• Cut her some slack — she's had a hard week. tree →
• (UK slang) "You ate all the sweets? That's slack!" tree →
• Dad wore smart slacks to the party. tree →
• The coach told us not to slack off in training. tree →
• Fear fell llke night around the Fianna, and they stood with slack knees and hanging hands waiting for death. tree →

note

Opposite of slack (loose) is taut or tight. Person who slacks: a slacker. "Slacks" (trousers) is always plural. "Slack" for unfair is mild slang in the UK and Ireland.

In the corpora

• Therefore shall all hands be slack, and every heart of man shall melt.
• All hands shall be slack, and all knees shall drip with water.
• In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: 'Fear thou not; O Zion, let not thy hands be slack.
• He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
• Even one that is slack in his work is brother to him that is a destroyer.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «slack» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.