Wiktionary

pack

See also: Pack

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English pak, pakke, from Old English *pæcca and/or Middle Dutch pak, packe; both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pakkō, from Proto-Germanic *pakkô (“bundle, pack”). Cognate with Dutch pak (“pack”), Low German Pack (“pack”), German Pack (“pack”), Swedish packe (“pack”), Icelandic pakka, pakki (“package”).

Noun

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pack (plural packs)

  1. A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back, but also a load for an animal, a bale.
    The horses carried the packs across the plain.
    • 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Slavery in Massachusetts:
      We do not ask him to make up his mind, but to make up his pack.
  2. A number or quantity equal to the contents of a pack
  3. A multitude.
    a pack of lies
    a pack of complaints
  4. A number or quantity of connected or similar things; a collective.
  5. A full set of playing cards
    We were going to play cards, but nobody brought a pack.
  6. The assortment of playing cards used in a particular game.
    cut the pack
  7. A group of hounds or dogs, hunting or kept together.
    • 2005, John D. Skinner, Christian T. Chimimba, The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion:
      African wild dogs hunt by sight, although stragglers use their noses to follow the pack.
  8. A wolfpack: a number of wolves, hunting together.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 117:
      If I hurried down to the river, he said, I should be sure to fall in with a pack of wolves, for just as he was driving up the hill close to the sound, they started up the river on the ice.
  9. A flock of knots.
    • 1988, Michael Cady, Rob Hume, editors, The Complete Book of British Birds, page 154:
      They form extremely tight flocks, which carpet the ground, giving rise to the descriptive name of "a pack" of knots.
  10. A group of people associated or leagued in a bad design or practice; a gang.
    a pack of thieves
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 240:
      "She will try, for she does not know that it is you who dropped the tallow on the shirt; but that can only be done by Christian folks, and not by a pack of trolls like we have in this place; and so I will say that I will not have anybody else for a bride except the one who can wash the shirt clean, and I know you can do that."
    • 1976, Freda Adler, Herbert Marcus Adler, Sisters in Crime: The Rise of the New Female Criminal, page 100:
      In London there are some thirty gangs of “bovver birds,” violence-prone girls who roam the streets in packs attacking almost any vulnerable object for no apparent reason other than the sheer thrill of it.
  11. A group of Cub Scouts.
  12. A shook of cask staves.
  13. A bundle of sheet iron plates for rolling simultaneously.
  14. A large area of floating pieces of ice driven together more or less closely.
    The ship had to sail round the pack of ice.
    • 1863, Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby:
      And now they came to the edge of the pack, and beyond it they could see Shiny Wall looming, through mist, and snow, and storm. But the pack rolled horribly upon the swell, and the ice giants fought and roared, and leapt upon each other's backs, and ground each other to powder […]
  15. (medicine) An envelope, or wrapping, of sheets used in hydropathic practice, called dry pack, wet pack, cold pack, etc., according to the method of treatment.
  16. (slang) A loose, lewd, or worthless person. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  17. (snooker, pool) A tight group of object balls in cue sports. Usually the reds in snooker.
  18. (rugby) The forwards in a rugby team (eight in Rugby Union, six in Rugby League) who with the opposing pack constitute the scrum.
    The captain had to take a man out of the pack to replace the injured fullback.
    • 2019 November 3, Liam de Carme, “Boks, you beauties”, in Sunday Times‎[1]:
      If the pack wasn't pummelling England, Handre Pollard kept delivering telling blows.
  19. (roller derby) The largest group of blockers from both teams skating in close proximity.
  20. (slang) A package of cigarettes.
    “Carlo, I told you that three packs a day would kill you long before I was gone.”
Synonyms
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  • (full set of cards): deck
Derived terms
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Terms derived from pack (noun)
Translations
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English pakken, from the noun (see above). Compare Middle Dutch packen (“to pack”), Middle Low German packen (“to pack”).

Verb

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pack (third-person singular simple present packs, present participle packing, simple past and past participle packed)

  1. (physical) To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport.
    1. (transitive) To make a pack of; to arrange closely and securely in a pack; hence, to place and arrange compactly as in a pack
      to pack goods in a box;  to pack fish
    2. (transitive) To fill in the manner of a pack, that is, compactly and securely, as for transportation; hence, to fill closely or to repletion; to stow away within; to cause to be full; to crowd into.
      to pack a trunk;  the play, or the audience, packs the theater
      • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court:
        By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
      • 2007 November 23, Claudia La Rocco, “Ballet and African Steps, Delivered at Warp Speed”, in The New York Times‎[2]:
        The mix of ballet vocabulary, modern techniques and African steps is familiar, but the extent to which Mr. Rhoden packs — and overpacks — phrases, cultivates warp-speed delivery and hyperextends every possible hip jut and arabesque is, thank goodness, something special to Complexions.
    3. (transitive) To wrap in a wet or dry sheet, within numerous coverings.
      The doctor gave Kelly some sulfa pills and packed his arm in hot-water bags.
    4. (transitive) To make impervious, such as by filling or surrounding with suitable material, or to fit or adjust so as to move without allowing air, water, or steam inside.
      to pack a joint;  to pack the piston of a steam engine;  pack someone's arm with ice.
    5. (intransitive) To make up packs, bales, or bundles; to stow articles securely for transportation.
    6. (intransitive) To form a compact mass, especially in order for transportation.
      the goods pack conveniently;  wet snow packs well
    7. (intransitive, of animals) To gather together in flocks, herds, schools or similar groups of animals.
      the grouse or the perch begin to pack
    8. (transitive, historical) To combine (telegraph messages) in order to send them more cheaply as a single transmission.
  2. (social) To cheat.
    1. (transitive, card games) To sort and arrange (the cards) in the pack to give oneself an unfair advantage
    2. (transitive) To bring together or make up unfairly, in order to secure a certain result.
      to pack a jury
      • 1687, Francis Atterbury, An answer to some considerations on the spirit of Martin Luther and the original of the Reformation:
        The expected council was dwindling into […] a packed assembly of Italian bishops.
    3. (transitive) To contrive unfairly or fraudulently; to plot.
      • 1655, Thomas Fuller, “He lost life […] upon a nice point subtilely devised and packed by his enemies.”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI):
    4. (intransitive) To put together for morally wrong purposes; to join in cahoots.
  3. (transitive) To load with a pack
    to pack a horse
  4. (transitive, figurative) to load; to encumber.
  5. To move, send or carry.
    1. (transitive) To cause to go; to send away with baggage or belongings; especially, to send away peremptorily or suddenly; – sometimes with off. See pack off.
      to pack a boy off to school
    2. (transitive, US, chiefly Western US) To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (on the backs of men or animals).
    3. (intransitive) To depart in haste; – generally with off or away.
      • 1723, Jonathan Swift, Stella at Wood-Park:
        Poor Stella must pack off to town.
      • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, Dora:
        You shall pack, / And never more darken my doors again.
    4. (transitive, slang) To carry weapons, especially firearms, on one's person.
      packing heat
    5. (intransitive, LGBTQ, especially of a trans man or drag king) To wear an object, such as a prosthetic penis, inside one’s trousers to appear more male or masculine.
      • 1995, Robin Sweeney, “Too Butch to Be Bi (or You Can't Judge a Boy by Her Lover)”, in Naomi Tucker, Liz Highleyman, Rebecca Kaplan, editors, Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions‎[3], Binghamton: The Haworth Press, →ISBN, page 181:
        I am a butch bisexual woman […] Frequently I like to appear as masculine as I can, often passing for male on the street. […] Sometimes I pack when I go out, putting my dildo in my pants and wearing my dick out of the house.
  6. (transitive, sports, slang) To block a shot, especially in basketball.
  7. (intransitive, rugby, of the forwards in a rugby team) To play together cohesively, specially with reference to their technique in the scrum.
Synonyms
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  • (To sort and arrange (the cards) in a pack so as to secure the game unfairly): stack
Antonyms
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  • (antonym(s) of “make into a pack”): unpack
Derived terms
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terms derived from pack (verb)
Translations
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Chinese

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Etymology

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From English pack.

Pronunciation

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Classifier

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pack

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) Classifier for packs (bundles) of objects.

Verb

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pack

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to pack up

References

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  • Bauer, Robert S. (2021) ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN, page 788

French

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English pack.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pack m (plural packs)

  1. pack (item of packaging)
  2. pack ice
  3. (sports) a rugby team

Further reading

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Middle English

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Noun

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pack

  1. Alternative form of pak

Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English pack.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pack m (invariable)

  1. (colloquial, euphemistic) sexual photos and videos sold over the internet
    A garota começou a vender packs para pagar as despesas.
    The girl started selling packs to pay her expenses.

Scots

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Adjective

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pack

  1. intimate; confidential

Derived terms

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Spanish

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English pack.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pack m (plural packs)

  1. pack, package
  2. kit, set, bundle
  3. (colloquial, euphemistic) sexual photos and videos, paid or not, sent over internet, network social; sexting photos

Further reading

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  • Manuel Seco, Olimpia Andrés, Gabino Ramos (2023 August 3) “pack”, in Diccionario del español actual [Dictionary of Current Spanish] (in Spanish), third digital edition, Fundación BBVA [BBVA Foundation]

Swedish

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Noun

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pack n

  1. (derogatory) socially despised people; scum, trash, (when related to low social class) dregs, riffraff, etc.
    fotbollshuliganer och annat pack
    football hooligans and other scum
  2. stuff, things, luggage; only used in pick och pack

Declension

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Declension of pack
nominative genitive
singular indefinite pack packs
definite packet packets
plural indefinite — —
definite — —

Descendants

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  • → Finnish: pakka

See also

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References

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