# sack

Pronunciation: say "SAK" /sæk/

## Noun

1. 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.
   - Simple: A bag for holding or carrying things, often big and made of rough cloth, or made of paper or plastic.
   - _He dragged a heavy burlap sack of coffee beans across the warehouse floor._
   - _She carried the groceries home in two paper sacks with handles._
2. A tackle that brings down the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage.
   - Simple: In football, knocking down the quarterback behind the line where the play began.
   - _A sack on third down forced the offense to punt._
   - _The defensive end led the league with fourteen sacks last season._
6. Dismissal from a job, or removal from a position someone holds. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Being made to leave your job or position.
   - _After the third missed deadline, the editor finally gave her the sack._
   - _Half the factory staff got the sack when the plant moved overseas._
7. The plundering and pillaging of a town or city after it has been captured.
   - Simple: The robbing and wrecking of a town or city after an army takes it.
   - _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._
8. A bed, or bed as the place where a person sleeps. *(colloquial, US)*
   - Simple: Your bed, or the place where you sleep.
   - _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._
10. 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.
   - Simple: How much a sack holds. Long ago it was also a unit for measuring wool and other goods.
   - _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._
11. The scrotum, the pouch of skin that holds the testicles. *(slang)*
   - Simple: The bag of skin that holds a man's 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._
16. One of the square bases fixed in place at first, second, or third base.
   - Simple: In baseball, one of the square bases fixed to the ground at first, second, or third.
   - _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._

## Verb

3. To dismiss someone from their job or position. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: To make someone leave 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._
4. To plunder or pillage a place, especially one that has been captured, taking spoils of war from it.
   - Simple: To rob and destroy a place, especially after an army has taken 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._
5. To bring an opposing quarterback to the ground while he is behind the line of scrimmage, especially before he has a chance to pass.
   - Simple: In football, to knock down the quarterback behind the line where the play began, especially before he can throw.
   - _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._
9. To place something into a sack or into several sacks.
   - Simple: To put things into a sack.
   - _Volunteers will sack the donated rice so families can carry it home._
   - _The miners sacked their ore and loaded it onto the mules._
12. To give up on or abandon someone or something, put it off, or stop thinking about it. *(slang, Australia)*
   - Simple: To give up on something or someone, 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._

## Noun

13. 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. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A strong, dry white wine from Spain and other places in southern Europe.
14. 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. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A loose dress with sleeves that hangs from the shoulders, popular long ago, or a loose short coat.
15. A man's coat that hangs straight from top to bottom with no seam running across it, also called a sack coat. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A man's coat that falls straight from the shoulders to the bottom with no seam across it.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Goods and valuables seized by pillaging a place.
- (verb) To bear or carry something in a sack on the back or shoulders.

## Origin

**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."

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/sack (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).