sack
Forms
- Plural
- sacks
- present (v1)
- sack
- past (v2)
- sacked
- past participle (v3)
- sacked
- present participle
- sacking
- 3rd person singular
- sacks
Definitions
1.The plunder and pillaging of a captured town or city.
2.Loot or booty obtained by pillage.
3.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.
4.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., .
- Generally, however, the stone or petra, almost always of 14 lbs., is used, the tod of 28 lbs., and the sack of thirteen stone.
1.To plunder or pillage, especially after capture; to obtain spoils of war from.
- My sister wants to sack Tokyo.
- The barbarians sacked Rome in 410 CE.
2.To tackle the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage, especially before he is able to throw a pass.
- 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.
3.To put in a sack or sacks.
- The gold was sacked in moose-hide bags, fifty pounds to the bag, and piled like so much firewood outside the spruce-bough lodge.
- Help me sack the groceries.
4.To bear or carry in a sack upon the back or the shoulders.
Frequency
Overall
Rare· #4742
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Rare
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
From Middle English sak, sek, sach, zech (“bag, sackcloth”), from Old English sacc (“sack, bag”) and sæċċ (“sackcloth, sacking”); both from Proto-West Germanic *sakku, from late Proto-Germanic *sakkuz (“sack”), borrowed from Latin saccus (“large bag”), from Ancient Greek σάκκος (sákkos, “bag of coarse cloth”), from Semitic, possibly Phoenician or Hebrew.