Word.ws English Dictionary

got down to brass tacks

got down to brass tacks is the simple past of get down to brass tacks.

got down to brass tacks is the past participle 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 got down to brass tacks

What is got down to brass tacks the simple past of?
Got down to brass tacks is the simple past of get down to brass tacks.

Words near got down to brass tacks in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: got 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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