Word.ws English Dictionary

gets down to brass tacks

gets down to brass tacks is the third-person singular simple present indicative of get down to brass tacks.

Meaning of get down to brass tacks

Verb

get down to brass tacks (third-person singular simple present gets down to brass tacks, present participle getting down to brass tacks, simple past got down to brass tacks, past participle gotten down to brass tacks or got down to brass tacks)

  1. (idiomatic) To (start to) consider or deal with the most important details or facts about something.
    • He did not wish to delay action, but was ready to vote instanter.—A reference now would amount to a defeat of the memorial. It was better to come right down to the brass and vote.[1854 April 1, “Legislative matters. […] Log-rolling of a land grant memorial through the Assembly”, in Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, volume X (New Series), number 2939, Milwaukee, Wis.: Rufus King &...

Questions about gets down to brass tacks

What is gets down to brass tacks the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Gets down to brass tacks is the third-person singular simple present indicative of get down to brass tacks.

Words near gets down to brass tacks in the dictionary

  1. gets cracking
  2. gets down
  3. gets down on
  4. gets down to
  5. gets down to bedrock
  6. gets down to brass tacks
  7. gets down to business
  8. gets down to cases
  9. gets down to nuts and bolts
  10. gets down to the nitty-gritty
  11. gets dressed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gets down to brass tacks (page history and authors); get down to brass tacks (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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