on the tack

English

Adjective

on the tack (not comparable)

1. (nautical) Tacking.
2. (slang) Without alcohol; teetotal.
   • 1952, Doris Lessing, Martha Quest, Panther, published 1974, page 152:

     For they were always going on the tack; a dozen pairs of sympathetic eyes would follow the consciously heroic youth as he wandered down the veranda with a glass of orange juice in his hand; and they asked anxiously, ‘How goes it, Frankie?’