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pack¹

(păk)

a. A collection of items tied up or wrapped; a bundle.

b. A container made to be carried on the body of a person or animal.

2. The amount, as of food, that is processed and packaged at one time or in one season.

3. A small package containing a standard number of identical or similar items: a pack of matches.

a. A complete set of related items: a pack of cards.

b. Informal A large amount; a heap: earned a pack of money.

a. A group of animals, such as dogs or wolves, that run and hunt together.

b. A gang of people: a pack of hoodlums.

c. An organized troop having common interests: a Cub Scout pack.

6. A mass of large pieces of floating ice driven together.

7. Medicine

a. Material, such as towels, sheets, or blankets that are used to swathe a patient or body part.

b. A material, such as gauze, that is therapeutically inserted into a body cavity or wound.

a. An ice pack used to reduce pain and inflammation.

b. A cold pack.

c. A hot pack.

9. A cosmetic paste that is applied to the skin, allowed to dry, and then rinsed off.

v. packed, pack·ing, packs

v.tr.

1. To fold, roll, or combine into a bundle; wrap up.

a. To put into a receptacle for transporting or storing: pack one's belongings.

b. To fill up with items: pack one's trunk.

3. To process and put into containers in order to preserve, transport, or sell: packed the fruit in jars.

a. To bring together (persons or things) closely; crowd together: managed to pack 300 students into the lecture hall.

b. To fill up tight; cram.

5. Medicine

a. To wrap (a patient) in a pack.

b. To insert a pack into (a body cavity or wound).

6. To wrap tightly for protection or to prevent leakage: pack a valve stem.

7. To press together; compact firmly: packed the clay and straw into bricks.

8. Informal To carry, deliver, or have available for action: a thug who packed a pistol; a fighter who packs a hard punch.

9. To send unceremoniously: The parents packed both children off to bed.

10. To constitute (a voting panel) by appointment, selection, or arrangement in such a way that it is favorable to one's purposes or point of view; rig: "In 1937 Roosevelt threatened to pack the court" (New Republic).

v.intr.

1. To place one's belongings in boxes or luggage for transporting or storing.

2. To be susceptible of compact storage: Dishes pack more easily than glasses.

3. To form lumps or masses; become compacted.

Phrasal Verb:

pack on

To gain (excess weight): has been packing on the pounds lately.

Idiom:

pack it in Informal

To cease work or activity: Let's pack it in for the day.

[Middle English pak, possibly of Low German origin.]

pack′a·bili·ty n.

packa·ble adj.

pack²

(păk)

Variant of pac.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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