▪ I. ˈtacking, vbl. n.
[f. tack v.1 + -ing1.]
The action of tack v.1 in various senses. a. Joining or fastening together, now esp. in a slight or temporary manner; also, that which is tacked or joined on.
| 1713 Derham Phys. Theol. iv. viii. (1714) 159 The Muscles, their curious Structure, the nice tacking them to every Joynt. 1880 A. Arnold Free Land 133 As to mortgages, Mr. Joshua Williams described that nefarious dealing..known as ‘tacking’. 1888 Mrs. H. Ward R. Elsmere xiv, You don't know anything about tacking or fixing, or the abominable time they take. 1887 Saintsbury Hist. Elizab. Lit. ix. (1890) 351 [In Hobbes's Human Nature] the terse phrasing, the independence of all after-thoughts and tackings-on, manifest themselves at once. |
b. The attaching to a money-bill in parliament of a measure for some other purpose.
| 1700 Evelyn Diary Apr., This tacking of bills is a novel practice, suffer'd by K. Cha. II. who..let any thing pass rather than not have wherewith to feed his extravagance. a 1745 Swift Four last Y.Q. Anne iii. Wks. (Bohn) I. 471/2 The reasonableness of uniting to a money-bill one of a different nature, which is usually called tacking, hath been likewise much debated, and will admit of argument enough. 1909 A. Grant in Contemp. Rev. Nov. 540 The argument that the Finance Bill of this year is an instance of ‘tacking’, that is, of the inclusion in a Money Bill of clauses not dealing with Finance. |
c. Naut. The action of making a tack or a series of tacks (tack n.1 6).
| 1675 tr. Camden's Hist. Eliz. iii. 414 Ships fit for Fight, Good Sailers, and nimble and tight for tacking about which way they would. 1806 A. Duncan Nelson 86 The damage..prevented him from tacking. 1868 E. Edwards Ralegh I. vii. 111 [The] great galleons..had to encounter the quick fire and the deft tacking of the smaller..ships of England. |
d. attrib. and Comb., as tacking-cotton, tacking-needle, tacking-thread; tacking iron Photogr., a tool used for attaching tissue to a print or mount by the application of heat at chosen points.
| 1880 Plain Hints Needlework 57 ‘Basting’ or ‘tacking cotton’. 1898 Westm. Gaz. 7 Apr. 3/2 Then run a tacking cotton (no back stitches) all round the four sides... Press the fold of lace till it is nearly dry before you take out the tacking threads. Ibid. 8 Oct. 4/1 A sailor's tacking needle. 1973 Bodl. Libr. Rec. IX. 2 The work bench is equipped with tacking irons and a pH meter. 1977 J. Hedgecoe Photographer's Handbk. 309 (caption) Using an electric tacking iron gently touch the center of the tissue, sticking it to the print. |
▪ II. ˈtacking, ppl. a.
[f. as prec. + -ing2.]
That tacks; that joins or connects: cf. prec.
| 1705 Hickeringill Priest-cr. ii. Wks. 1716 III. 126 If they get..a Tacking Parliament, to make Acts of Uniformity and Conformity to their Models and little Ways. Ibid. iv. 40, I never yet in all our Chronicles met with a Parliament stigmatized with the Name of the Tacking Parliament. |