Slack

adjective
1.
not tight, taut, firm, or tense; loose:
a slack rope.
2.
negligent; careless; remiss:
slack proofreading.
3.
slow, sluggish, or indolent:
He is slack in answering letters.
4.
not active or busy; dull; not brisk:
the slack season in an industry.
5.
moving very slowly, as the tide, wind, or water.
6.
weak; lax.
7.
Nautical. easy (def 15a).
adverb
8.
in a slack manner.
noun
9.
a slack condition or part.
10.
the part of a rope, sail, or the like, that hangs loose, without strain upon it.
11.
a decrease in activity, as in business or work:
a sudden slack in output.
12.
a period of decreased activity.
13.
Geography. a cessation in a strong flow, as of a current at its turn.
14.
a depression between hills, in a hillside, or in the land surface.
15.
Prosody. (in sprung rhythm) the unaccented syllable or syllables.
16.
British Dialect. a morass; marshy ground; a hollow or dell with soft, wet ground at the bottom.
verb (used with object)
17.
to be remiss in respect to (some matter, duty, right, etc.); shirk; leave undone:
He slacked the most important part.
18.
to make or allow to become less active, vigorous, intense, etc.; relax (efforts, labor, speed, etc.); lessen; moderate (often followed by up).
19.
to make loose, or less tense or taut, as a rope; loosen (often followed by off or out).
20.
to slake (lime).
verb (used without object)
21.
to be remiss; shirk one’s duty or part.
22.
to become less active, vigorous, rapid, etc. (often followed by up):
Business is slacking up.
23.
to become less tense or taut, as a rope; to ease off.
24.
to become slaked, as lime.
Idioms
25.
take up the slack,

to pull in or make taut a loose section of a rope, line, wire, etc.:
Take up the slack before releasing the kite.
to provide or compensate for something that is missing or incomplete:
New sources of oil will take up the slack resulting from the embargo.

noun
1.
the fine screenings of coal.
adjective
1.
not tight, tense, or taut
2.
negligent or careless
3.
(esp of water, etc) moving slowly
4.
(of trade, etc) not busy
5.
(phonetics) another term for lax (sense 4)
adverb
6.
in a slack manner
noun
7.
a part of a rope, etc, that is slack: take in the slack
8.
a period of decreased activity
9.

a patch of water without current
a slackening of a current

10.
(prosody) (in sprung rhythm) the unstressed syllable or syllables
verb
11.
to neglect (one’s duty, etc)
12.
(often foll by off) to loosen; to make slack
13.
(chem) a less common word for slake (sense 3)
noun
1.
small pieces of coal with a high ash content
skywest

1. Internal fragmentation. Space allocated to a disk file but not actually used to store useful information.
2. In the theology of the Church of the SubGenius, a mystical substance or quality that is the prerequisite of all human happiness.
Since Unix files are stored compactly, except for the unavoidable wastage in the last block or fragment, it might be said that “Unix has no slack”.
See ha ha only serious.
[Jargon File]
(1995-03-01)