sack

noun

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. — .”

   “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.”

   “Generally, however, the stone or petra, almost always of 14 lbs., is used, the tod of 28 lbs., and the sack of thirteen stone.”

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. A successful tackle of the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage.
6. 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.

   “give (someone) the sack”

   “get the sack”

   “The boss is gonna give her the sack today.”

   “He got the sack for being late all the time.”

   “A climate researcher has been threatened with the sack by his employer after refusing to fly back to Germany at short notice after finishing fieldwork on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands archipelago.”

8. (US, colloquial, figuratively, literally)Bed.

   “hit the sack”

   “in the sack”

9. (dated)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.

   “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.”

   “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 […].”

   “This lady's interesting figure, on her wedding-day, was attired in a sacque and petticoat of the most expensive brocaded white silk, resembling net-work, enriched with small flowers […].”

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

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

12. Any disposable bag.
13. (countable, dated, uncountable)A variety of light-colored dry wine from Spain or the Canary Islands; also, any strong white wine from southern Europe; sherry.

    “Wilt pleaſe your Lord drink a cup of ſacke? […] I am Christophero Sly, call not mee Honour nor Lordship: I ne're drank ſacke in my life: […]”

    “Giue me a Cup of Sacke, Rogue. Is there no Vertue extant?”

    “How cam'ſt thou hither? / Sweare by this Bottle how thou cam'ſt hither: I eſcap'd / vpon a But of Sacke, which the Saylors heaued o'reboord, by this Bottle which I made of the barke of a Tree, with mine owne hands, since I was caſt a'ſhore.”

    “The vesper bell had rung its parting note; the domini were mostly caged in comfortable quarters, discussing the merits of old port; and the merry student had closed his oak, to consecrate the night to friendship, sack, and claret.”

    “"He's got a venison pastry and a flagon of sack in that cupboard behind him."”

14. (alt-of, dated)Dated form of sac (“pouch in a plant or animal”).

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

15. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative spelling of sac (“sacrifice”).

verb

1. To put in a sack or sacks.

   “Help me sack the groceries.”

   “The gold was sacked in moose-hide bags, fifty pounds to the bag, and piled like so much firewood outside the spruce-bough lodge.”

   “A girl porter sacking some of the many thousands of used railway tickets which are turned over by the London Passenger Transport Board to assist the waste paper salvage campaign”

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 in 410 CE.”

   “Thoſe thouſand horſe shall ſweat with martiall ſpoyle Of conquered kingdomes, and of Cities ſackt, […]”

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

4. 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.”

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

   “He was sacked last September.”

   “[…] 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, […]”

   “Waste my time working for cowards and creeps / Oh I wish that they'd sack me and leave me to sleep”

   “As an aside, Luddendenfoot once had a famous (or perhaps infamous) clerk - drunkard Branwell Brontë, brother to the famous Brontë sisters and writers. He was sacked from his post in March 1842 after an audit revealed a discrepancy in the books. Today, a blue plaque on the Jubilee Refreshment rooms at Sowerby Bridge station commemorates him.”

   “A group of St Petersburg local politicians who called for President Vladimir Putin to be sacked over the war in Ukraine faces the likely dissolution of their district council following a judge's ruling on Tuesday, one of the deputies said.”

6. (Australia, slang, transitive)To give up on, to abandon, delay, to not think about someone or something.

   “Sack the homework.”

   “Sack him, let's run.”

7. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative spelling of sac (“sacrifice”).