Word.ws English Dictionary

sit on a tack

sit on a tack phrase: an expression of contempt or dismissiveness directed at someone, particularly in the case of disagreement.

Phrase

sit on a tack

  1. (colloquial, dated, idiomatic) An expression of contempt or dismissiveness directed at someone, particularly in the case of disagreement.
    • I don't care what he thinks! He can just sit on a tack!
    • "Go sit on a tack!" she said, angrily.
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see sit, on, a, tack.

Examples of sit on a tack in a sentence

  • "From now on, so far as I'm concerned, you can sit on a tack!"1920, E. J. Rath, “The Brains of the Family”, in Munsey's Magazine, volume 71, number 2, page 281:
  • And if the Devil doesn't like it, he can sit on a tack!1925, George William Cooke, “Joy In My Heart”:
  • "You can sit on a tack!" He wanted to say it bad.1936, Jack O'Connor, “Easy Mark”, in Fiction Parade and Golden Book Magazine, volume III, number 4, page 459:
  • "You can sit on a tack," Harry fired back, then laughed, and Susan laughed with her.2020, Rita Mae Brown, Sneaky Pie Brown, Furmidable Foes: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery, Bantam Books, page 216:

Questions about sit on a tack

What does sit on a tack mean?
Sit on a tack means an expression of contempt or dismissiveness directed at someone, particularly in the case of disagreement.
How do you use sit on a tack in a sentence?
"From now on, so far as I'm concerned, you can sit on a tack!"
What part of speech is sit on a tack?
Sit on a tack is a phrase.

Words near sit on a tack in the dictionary

  1. sit in with
  2. sit loose
  3. sit loosely
  4. sit off
  5. sit on
  6. sit on a tack
  7. sit on death's doorstep
  8. sit on it
  9. sit on one's arse
  10. sit on one's ass
  11. sit on one's hands

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sit on a tack (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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Cite this entry: “sit on a tack.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sit_on_a_tack. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.