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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Slack \Slack\, Slacken \Slack"en\, verb (used with an object)
1. To render slack; to make less tense or firm; as, to slack a rope; to slacken a bandage. --Wycklif (Acts xxvii. 40)
2. To neglect; to be remiss in. [Obs.] --Shak.
Slack not the pressage. --Dryden.
3. To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake; as, to slack lime.
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.
I should be grieved, young prince, to think my presence Unbent your thoughts, and slackened 'em to arms. --Addison.
In this business of growing rich, poor men should slack their pace. --South.
With such delay Well plased, they slack their course. --Milton.
5. To cause to become less intense; to mitigate; to abate; to ease.
To respite, or deceive, or slack thy pain Of this ill mansion. --Milton.
{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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Slack \Slack\, adverb Slackly; as, slack dried hops.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Slack \Slack\, noun The part of anything that hangs loose, having no strain upon it; as, the slack of a rope or of a sail.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Slack \Slack\, Slacken \Slack"en\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Slacked}, {Slackened}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Slacking}, {Slackening}.] [See {Slack}, adjective]
1. To become slack; to be made less tense, firm, or rigid; to decrease in tension; as, a wet cord slackens in dry weather.
2. To be remiss or backward; to be negligent.
3. To lose cohesion or solidity by a chemical combination with water; to slake; as, lime slacks.
4. To abate; to become less violent.
Whence these raging fires Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. --Milton.
5. To lose rapidity; to become more slow; as, a current of water slackens.
6. To languish; to fail; to flag.
7. To end; to cease; to desist; to slake. [Obs.]
That through your death your lineage should slack. --Chaucer.
They will not of that firste purpose slack. --Chaucer.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Slack \Slack\, noun [Icel. slakki a slope on a mountain edge.] A valley, or small, shallow dell. [Prov. Eng.] --Grose.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Slack \Slack\, adjective [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.
2. Weak; not holding fast; as, a slack hand. --Milton.
3. Remiss; backward; not using due diligence or care; not earnest or eager; as, slack in duty or service.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness. --2 Pet. iii. 9.
4. Not violent, rapid, or pressing; slow; moderate; easy; as, business is slack. ''With slack pace.'' --Chaucer.
C?sar . . . about sunset, hoisting sail with a slack southwest, at midnight was becalmed. --Milton.
{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.
Syn: Loose; relaxed; weak; remiss; backward; abated; diminished; inactive; slow; tardy; dull.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Slack \Slack\, noun [Cf. {Slag}.] Small coal; also, coal dust; culm. --Raymond.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
slack
adjective
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}]
noun
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"
verb
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}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
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
From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:
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}.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
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)
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