slacking

Verb

slack (third-person singular simple present slacks, present participle slacking, simple past and past participle slacked)

1. (ambitransitive) To slacken.
   • I maruell I heare no nevves of Dromio, either hee ſlackes the matter, or betrayes his maiſter, I dare not motion anie thing to Stellio, till I knovve vvhat my boy hath don; Ile hunt him out, if the loiterſacke be gone ſpringing into a tauerne, Ile fetch him reeling out.c. 1590 (date written), [John Lyly], Mother Bombie. […], London: […] Thomas Scarlet for Cuthbert Burby, published 1594, →OCLC, Act II, scene ii, signature C3, verso
2. (obsolete) To mitigate; to reduce the strength of.
   • Ne did ſhe let dull ſleepe once to relent, / Nor wearineſſe to ſlack her haſt, but fled / Euer alike,[…].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 2, page 494
3. To lose cohesion or solidity by a chemical combination with water; to slake.
   • Lime slacks.
4. To refuse to work as hard as one is supposed to.
   • I can't afford to slack. This job is all I have!

See all 28 meanings of slack