• (British, America) IPA: /sæk/

sack (plural sacks)

1. A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with handles used at a supermarket, a grocery sack; or, a small bag for small items, a satchel.
2. The amount a sack holds; also, an archaic or historical measure of varying capacity, depending on commodity type and according to local usage; an old English measure of weight, usually of wool, equal to 13 stone (182 pounds), or in other sources, 26 stone (364 pounds).
   • The American sack of salt is 215 pounds; the sack of wheat, two bushels. — McElrath.
   • 1843, The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Vol. 27, page 202 ↗

     Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6 1/2 tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. [...] It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.

3. (uncountable) The plunder and pillaging of a captured town or city.

   The sack of Rome.

4. (uncountable) Loot or booty obtained by pillage.
5. (American football) A successful tackle of the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage. See verb sense⁴ below.
6. (baseball) One of the square bases anchored at first base, second base, or third base.

   He twisted his ankle sliding into the sack at second.

7. (informal) Dismissal from employment, or discharge from a position, usually as give (someone) the sack or get the sack. See verb sense⁵ below.

   The boss is gonna give her the sack today.

   He got the sack for being late all the time.

8. (colloquial, US) Bed; usually as hit the sack or in the sack. See also sack out.
9. (dated) (also sacque) A kind of loose-fitting gown or dress with sleeves which hangs from the shoulders, such as a gown with a Watteau back or sack-back, fashionable in the late 17th to 18th century; or, formerly, a loose-fitting hip-length jacket, cloak or cape.
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Book IV, chapter vii, Google Books ↗

     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.

   • 1780, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, p. 151:

     Her Dress, too, was of the same cast, a thin muslin short sacque and Coat lined throughout with Pink, – a modesty bit – and something of a very short cloak half concealed about half of her old wrinkled Neck […].

10. (dated) A sack coat; a kind of coat worn by men, and extending from top to bottom without a cross seam.
11. (vulgar, slang) The scrotum.

    He got passed the ball, but it hit him in the sack.

• (bag) bag, tote, poke (obsolete)
• (booty obtained by pillage) seeSynonyms en
• (informal: dismissal from employment) axe, pink slip, give the boot, get the chop, give the elbow, one's cards, the old heave-ho
• (colloquial: bed) hay, rack
• (vulgar slang: scrotum) seeSynonyms en

• sac
• sachet
• satchel
• haversack
• knapsack
• rucksack

• French: sac
• German: Sack, Papiersack, Beutel, Tüte
• Italian: sacco
• Portuguese: saco, saca
• Russian: мешо́к
• Spanish: bolsa, saco, costal

• German: Sack voll, (old spelling) Sackvoll
• Russian: мешо́к

• French: sac
• Italian: sacco, saccheggio
• Portuguese: saque
• Russian: разграбле́ние
• Spanish: saqueo

• French: butin
• Italian: bottino
• Russian: награ́бленное
• Spanish: botín

• German: Sack

• French: paquet
• Italian: benservito
• Portuguese: despedido
• Russian: увольне́ние
• Spanish: despedido

• French: lit, pieu
• Russian: посте́ль

• Italian: scroto
• Portuguese: saco
• Russian: мудо́

sack (sacks, present participle sacking; past and past participle sacked)

1. To put in a sack or sacks.

   Help me sack the groceries.

   • 1903, Jack London, The Call of the Wild, Chapter VII,

     The gold was sacked in moose-hide bags, fifty pounds to the bag […]

2. To bear or carry in a sack upon the back or the shoulders.
3. To plunder or pillage, especially after capture; to obtain spoils of war from.

   The barbarians sacked Rome.

   • 1898, Homer, translated by Samuel Butler, The Iliad, Book IX,

     It [a lyre] was part of the spoils which he had taken when he sacked the city of Eetion […]

4. (American football) To tackle, usually to tackle the offensive quarterback behind the line of scrimmage before he is able to throw a pass.
   • 1995, John Crumpacker and Gwen Knapp, "Sack-happy defensive line stuns Dolphins ↗", SFGate.com, November 21,

     On third down, the rejuvenated Rickey Jackson stormed in over All-Pro left tackle Richmond Webb to sack Marino yet again for a 2-yard loss.

5. (informal) To discharge from a job or position; to fire.

   He was sacked last September.

   • 1999, "Russian media mogul dismisses Yeltsin's bid to sack him ↗", CNN.com, March 5,

     […] Boris Berezovsky on Friday dismissed President Boris Yeltsin's move to sack him from his post as executive secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States, […]

6. (colloquial) In the phrase sack out, to fall asleep. See also hit the sack.

   The kids all sacked out before 9:00 on New Year’s Eve.

• (plunder, pillage) loot, ransack
• (to remove someone from a job) can, dismiss, fire, lay off, let go, terminate, make redundant, give the axe, give the boot, give (someone) their cards, give the chop, give the elbow, give the old heave-ho, See also: Thesaurus:lay off
• (slang: to hit in the groin) rack

• Portuguese: ensacar
• Spanish: ensacar

• French: saccager
• German: plündern
• Italian: saccheggiare, predare, fare man bassa
• Spanish: saquear

• French: virer
• Spanish: correr, despedir

• French: coucher

sack

1. (dated) A variety of light-colored dry wine from Spain or the Canary Islands; also, any strong white wine from southern Europe; sherry.
   • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     Will't please your lordship drink a cup of sack? ...I ne'er drank sack in my life...

   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack...let a cup of sack be my poison...Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it?

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 2

     How didst thou 'scape? How cam'st thou hither? swear / by this bottle how thou cam'st hither—I escaped upon / a butt of sack, which the sailors heaved overboard, by / this bottle! [...]

sack (plural sacks)

1. Dated form of sac#English|sac (“pouch in a plant or animal”).
   • 1938, The Microscope (volumes 1-2, page 56)

     Sometimes fishes are born that have rudimentary yolk sacks. Such young are born prematurely.

sack (sacks, present participle sacking; past and past participle sacked)

1. Alternative spelling of sac

sack (plural sacks)

1. Alternative spelling of sac