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Definition of sack noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

sack

noun
 
/sæk/
 
/sæk/
Idioms
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  1. [countable] a large bag with no handles, made of strong rough material or strong paper or plastic, used for storing and carrying, for example flour, coal, etc.
    • They filled the sacks with potatoes.
    • bulging sacks of toys
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • bulging
    • heavy
    • burlap
    verb + sack
    • empty
    • fill
    • carry
    sack + verb
    • be filled with something
    • be full of something
    sack + noun
    • lunch
    • race
    preposition
    • in a/​the sack
    • sack of
    See full entry
  2. [countable] (North American English) a strong paper bag for carrying shopping
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • bulging
    • heavy
    • burlap
    verb + sack
    • empty
    • fill
    • carry
    sack + verb
    • be filled with something
    • be full of something
    sack + noun
    • lunch
    • race
    preposition
    • in a/​the sack
    • sack of
    See full entry
  3. [countable] the contents of a sack
    • They got through a sack of potatoes.
    • (North American English) two sacks of groceries
    • a sack of coal
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • bulging
    • heavy
    • burlap
    verb + sack
    • empty
    • fill
    • carry
    sack + verb
    • be filled with something
    • be full of something
    sack + noun
    • lunch
    • race
    preposition
    • in a/​the sack
    • sack of
    See full entry
  4. the sack
    [singular] (British English, informal) being told by your employer that you can no longer continue working for a company, etc., usually because of something that you have done wrong
    • He got the sack for swearing.
    • Her work was so poor that she was given the sack.
    • Four hundred workers face the sack.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + the sack
    • get
    • give somebody
    • be threatened with
    See full entry
  5. the sack
    [singular] (especially North American English, informal) a bed
    • He caught them in the sack together.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + the sack
    • hit
    preposition
    • in the sack
    See full entry
  6. (usually the sack)
    [singular] (formal) the act of stealing or destroying property in a captured town
    • the sack of Rome
  7. Word Originnoun senses 1 to 5 Old English sacc, from Latin saccus ‘sack, sackcloth’, from Greek sakkos, of Semitic origin. noun sense 6 mid 16th cent.: from French sac, in the phrase mettre à sac ‘put to sack’, on the model of Italian fare il sacco, mettere a sacco, which perhaps originally referred to filling a sack with plunder.
Idioms
hit the hay/sack
  1. (informal) to go to bed
    • I decided to hit the sack and have an early night.
See sack in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary
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