taking up the slack

Verb

take up the slack (third-person singular simple present takes up the slack, present participle taking up the slack, simple past took up the slack, past participle taken up the slack)

1. To tighten something that is slack so that it is taut.
   • You need to take up the slack in your cables so shifters and brakes function properly.1996, Dave King, Michael Kaminer, The Mountain Bike Experience
2. To do work that would otherwise be left undone.
   • A production never has enough time or enough money. Someone has to take up the slack.1995, Bill Tarling, Peter Messaline, In the Background: An Extra's Handbook, page 48
3. To provide extra resources that are not met by normal sources.
   • As oil production worldwide plateaus and falters, other fossil fuels are coming under strain, and no alternative — renewable or otherwise — shows any sign of being able to take up the slack.2008, John Michael Greer, The Long Descent
4. To act as a slack variable, converting an inequality into an equality.
   • A slack variable is a real variable which is introduced to take up the slack in an inequality constraint, i.e., to convert an inequality constraint to an equality constraint.2012, Donald A. Pierre, Optimization Theory with Applications
5. To consume something that would otherwise go to waste.
   • It is the nature of monopoly capitalism to create unused industrial capacity and unemployment. The arms economy is an effort to take up the slack in this unused capacity.1986, Avner Cohen, Steven Lee, Nuclear Weapons and the Future of Humanity