Word.ws English Dictionary

tack up

tack up verb: to prepare a horse for riding by equipping it with tack (harness, reins, saddle etc.).

Verb

tack up (third-person singular simple present tacks up, present participle tacking up, simple past and past participle tacked up)

  1. To prepare a horse for riding by equipping it with tack (harness, reins, saddle etc.)
    Antonyms:
    detack
  2. To attach in a temporary fashion (with or as if with tacks or pins), as for example to fix pieces of fabric into position in preparation for sewing their seams, or to hang dropcloths as masking before painting.
    • "The stage ought to be here," said Miranda, glancing nervously at the tall clock for the twentieth time. "I guess everything's done. I've tacked up two thick towels back of her washstand and put a mat under her slop-jar; but children are awful hard on furniture. I expect we sha'n't know this house...1903, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Antonyms of tack up

Forms of tack up

third-person singular presenttacks up
present participletacking up
past participletacked up
pasttacked up

Words formed from tack up

Questions about tack up

What does tack up mean?
Tack up means to prepare a horse for riding by equipping it with tack (harness, reins, saddle etc.).
What part of speech is tack up?
Tack up is a verb.
What is the past tense of tack up?
The past tense of tack up is tacked up.

Words near tack up in the dictionary

  1. tack lifter
  2. tack lifters
  3. tack room
  4. tack rooms
  5. tack together
  6. tack up
  7. tack weld
  8. tack welded
  9. tack welding
  10. tack welds
  11. tack-ravan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tack up (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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