ˈtin-ˈtack
a. A tack, or short light iron nail, coated with tin.
| 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxxv. 346 A..parcel of tin tacks and a very large hammer. 1840 ― Old C. Shop xxviii, Mrs. Jarley served out the tin tacks from a linen pocket. 1887 G. R. Sims Mary Jane's Mem. vii. 91 He had trodden on a tin-tack on the carpet, point up. |
b. Colloq. phr. to come (or get) down to tin tacks = to come (or get) down to brass tacks s.v. brass n. 5 b. (Found only in the work of G. B. Shaw.)
| 1921 G. B. Shaw Pen Portraits (1932) 183 Keats..had he lived, would no doubt have come down from Hyperions and Endymions to tin tacks as a very full-blooded modern revolutionist. 1949 ― Buoyant Billions (1950) iii. 45 Do let us get back to tin tacks. Is Clemmy going to marry him or is she not? |