sack

SAK/sæk/

Pluralsacks

Verbsacks, sacking, sacked

18 meanings of sack

Practice

1
nouncountable
A bag for storing or carrying things, especially a large one of strong, coarse material for goods such as potatoes or coal; also a paper or plastic shopping bag.
He dragged a heavy burlap sack of coffee beans across the warehouse floor.
She carried the groceries home in two paper sacks with handles.
UsageUsually a sack of something: a sack of potatoes, flour or coal.
Similarbag
2
nouncountable
A tackle that brings down the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage.
A sack on third down forced the offense to punt.
The defensive end led the league with fourteen sacks last season.
Note
The play is also a statistic: it is usually credited to the defender who brings the quarterback down, or split between two, and pass rushers are measured by their season totals. It counts only when the quarterback was trying to pass; a ball carrier stopped behind the line on a running play goes into the record as a tackle for a loss instead.
3
fire from jobverbcolloquialtransitive
To dismiss someone from their job or position.
The mayor threatened to sack him from his post as police chief.
The club sacked its head coach after six straight losses.
UsageOften passive: someone is sacked, sometimes sacked from a post. Fire means the same.
Similarfire, dismiss, axe, can, discharge
Oppositehire, employ, appoint
Note
It takes from for the post that is lost: in 1999 Boris Yeltsin moved to sack Boris Berezovsky from his post, and Branwell Brontë, brother of the novelists, was sacked from his railway clerk's post at Luddendenfoot in March 1842 after an audit.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
In 1999 Boris Yeltsin moved to dismiss Boris Berezovsky from his post. rferl.org
Branwell Brontë was the brother of the Brontë novelists. en.wikipedia.org
Branwell Brontë was dismissed from his railway clerk's post at Luddendenfoot in March 1842. library.leeds.ac.uk
Branwell's dismissal followed an audit. gutenberg.org
4
rob a cityverbtransitive
To plunder or pillage a place, especially one that has been captured, taking spoils of war from it.
After a long siege, the attackers sacked the city and burned its library.
The warlord threatened to sack any town that refused to pay him tribute.
UsageIts object is usually a town or city: sack the city, sack Rome.
Similarloot, ransack
Note
The object is almost always a town or city: Rome in 410, or the city of Eetion in Samuel Butler's Iliad, whose spoils included a lyre. Loot names the stealing and ransack the turning-over; sack takes in the whole ruin of a captured place, which is why the noun attaches so naturally to a city's name, as in the sack of Rome.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Rome was sacked in 410. en.wikipedia.org
Samuel Butler translated Homer's Iliad. gutenberg.org
Butler's Iliad describes the sack of Eetion's city; Achilles' lyre was among its spoils. en.wikisource.org
5
tackle (football)verbtransitive
To bring an opposing quarterback to the ground while he is behind the line of scrimmage, especially before he has a chance to pass.
The defense sacked the rookie quarterback five times before halftime.
Teams pay huge salaries for pass rushers who can sack the quarterback week after week.
UsageOften passive and with the cost: the quarterback was sacked for a loss of five yards.
Note
Sports reports make the quarterback the object, often by name, and add the cost with for a loss: in a 1995 SFGate report, Rickey Jackson storms past Richmond Webb "to sack Marino yet again for a 2-yard loss". Third down is the classic moment, when a sack can end a drive.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
A 1995 SFGate report describes Rickey Jackson beating Richmond Webb to sack Marino for a two-yard loss, using the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
A third-down sack can end an offensive drive by forcing a punt. colts.com
6
nouncolloquial
Dismissal from a job, or removal from a position someone holds.
After the third missed deadline, the editor finally gave her the sack.
Half the factory staff got the sack when the plant moved overseas.
UsageUsually get the sack or give someone the sack.
Similarboot, axe, push, dismissal
7
looting (war)noununcountable
The plundering and pillaging of a town or city after it has been captured.
Historians still argue over how many manuscripts were lost in the sack of Constantinople.
The sack of the city lasted three days, and the cathedral was stripped of its gold.
UsageUsually the sack of a city: the sack of Rome.
Similarpillage, plunder, looting
8
bednouncolloquialUS
A bed, or bed as the place where a person sleeps.
After the long drive, we ate a quick dinner and hit the sack.
Don't call him before ten; he's usually still in the sack.
UsageMostly in hit the sack (go to bed) and in the sack (in bed).
Similarbed, hay

Less common meanings

9
bag upverbtransitive
To place something into a sack or into several sacks.
Volunteers will sack the donated rice so families can carry it home.
The miners sacked their ore and loaded it onto the mules.
Similarbag
Note
Its past tense is where it runs into its neighbors. Gold "sacked in moose-hide bags" in Jack London's The Call of the Wild has been bagged, not plundered, and a porter sacking used railway tickets for wartime salvage is filling bags, not firing anyone; the object and the bags around it tell which.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
Jack London wrote The Call of the Wild. gutenberg.org
The quoted wording occurs in the novel and describes putting gold into bags. gutenberg.org
A wartime caption describes a porter bagging used railway tickets for salvage. en.wiktionary.org
10
amount heldnouncountable
The amount a sack holds; also, a historical measure whose capacity varied by commodity and place, and an old English weight, usually of wool, of 182 or 364 pounds.
The bakery goes through a sack of flour every two days.
Records show the abbey sold forty sacks of wool to Flemish merchants each year.
Similarbag
Note
As a wool weight the sack sat on an old English ladder of units: two weys made a sack, and twelve sacks a last. Its size depends on whom you read: The Penny Cyclopaedia works it out at 364 pounds, while James Edwin Thorold Rogers gives thirteen stone, half that. In America the name went to other goods: a sack of salt was 215 pounds, a sack of wheat two bushels.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
In historical English wool measures, two weys made a sack and twelve sacks made a last. en.wikipedia.org
The Penny Cyclopaedia calculates a sack as 364 pounds. en.wiktionary.org
James Edwin Thorold Rogers gives thirteen stone; at fourteen pounds per stone, that is 182 pounds, half of 364. en.wiktionary.org
American sack measures included 215 pounds for salt and two bushels for wheat. en.wiktionary.org
11
testiclesnounslangvulgarcountable
The scrotum, the pouch of skin that holds the testicles.
He started wearing a cup after one too many line drives to the sack.
The guys kept laughing at the video of him getting kicked in the sack.
UsageCommon in a kick to the sack or kicked in the sack. With a doctor, say scrotum.
Similarballs, nuts
12
give upverbslangAustraliatransitive
To give up on or abandon someone or something, put it off, or stop thinking about it.
Sack the meeting, mate, the surf's too good to miss.
We sacked the barbie when the storm rolled in and went to the pub instead.
UsageWith a person as the object, sack may also mean dismissing them from a job.
Similarforget
13
Spanish winenoundatedcountable or uncountable
Pale, dry wine of a kind made in Spain and the Canary Islands; also, sherry, or more broadly any strong white wine of southern Europe.
Giue me a Cup of Sacke, Rogue. Is there no Vertue extant?
c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth,”
"He's got a venison pastry and a flagon of sack in that cupboard behind him."
1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway
Similarsherry
Note
This sack is a different word from the bag. Earlier English called it wyne seck, usually traced to French vin sec, "dry wine", and behind that to Latin siccus, "dry", though some derive it from Spanish sacar. It is the drink Falstaff calls for in Henry IV, "Give me a cup of sack, rogue", and the word keeps that old tavern air.
14
loose gownnoundatedcountable
A loose gown with sleeves, hanging from the shoulders, fashionable from the late 1600s through the 1700s; formerly also a loose hip-length jacket, cloak, or cape.
Molly, therefore, having dressed herself out in this sack, with a new laced cap, and some other ornaments which Tom had given her, repairs to church with her fan in her hand the very next Sunday.
1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones
Note
The gown was often spelled sacque, a French-looking form: Frances Burney describes a "thin muslin short sacque" in her journal of 1780, and a bride in J. T. Smith's Nollekens and His Times wears a sacque and petticoat of brocaded white silk. Its hallmark was the Watteau back, loose pleats falling from the shoulders, and today the word belongs to dress history.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
Sacque was an alternative spelling of the garment name sack. en.wiktionary.org
Frances Burney used the exact phrase thin muslin short sacque in a journal entry dated 1780. en.wiktionary.org
J. T. Smith's Nollekens and His Times describes a bride wearing a sacque and petticoat of brocaded white silk. collections.hampshireculture.org.uk
The gown's characteristic back pleats are known as Watteau pleats. en.wikipedia.org
The back pleats fall loosely from the shoulders. vam.ac.uk
15
man's coatnoundatedcountable
A man's coat that hangs straight from top to bottom with no seam running across it, also called a sack coat.
16
baseball basenouncountable
One of the square bases fixed in place at first, second, or third base.
He beat the throw and slid headfirst into the sack at third.
The first baseman kept one foot on the sack and stretched for the wide throw.
Similarbase, bag
Note
The name belongs chiefly to three bases. First, second and third are cushioned and fixed to the ground so they hold when a runner slides in; home plate is a flat slab set level with the dirt and is only rarely called a sack. A runner on a sack, then, has not scored yet.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts
Home plate has also been called the home sack. gutenberg.org
First, second and third bases are cushioned. mktg.mlbstatic.com
First, second and third bases are securely attached to the ground. mktg.mlbstatic.com
Home plate is a slab set level with the ground. mktg.mlbstatic.com
Home plate has also been called the home sack. gutenberg.org
A runner occupying first, second or third base has not yet scored on that trip around the bases. mktg.mlbstatic.com
17
nounobsolete
Goods and valuables seized by pillaging a place.
18
verbrare
To bear or carry something in a sack on the back or shoulders.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of sack apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meanings 1–12, 14–16

Old English sacc ("sack, bag") became Middle English sak. The line goes back through Proto-Germanic *sakkuz, which was borrowed from Latin saccus ("large bag"). Latin took that from sákkos, an Ancient Greek word for a bag of coarse cloth, which came from a Semitic language, possibly Phoenician or Hebrew. The "plunder" meaning comes from Middle French sac, from mettre à sac, a phrase meaning "put it in a bag," and the meaning "fire from a job" comes from the expression "to give someone the sack," recorded since 1825.

Meaning 13

The word is probably a later form of (wyne) seck, which was taken from Middle French (vin) sec, "dry (wine)." The French goes back to Latin siccus, also meaning "dry."