Meaning of pick up the slack | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To tighten something that is slack so that it is taut.
2. To do work that would otherwise be left undone.
3. To provide extra needed resources.
4. To act as a slack variable, converting an inequality into an equality.
5. To consume something that would otherwise go to waste.

Examples

“In such cases even a four-to-one multiplying reel is much too slow to pick up the slack, and a single-action fly reel is hopelessly inadequate.”

“To go forward, lightly pick up the slack in one line to show the horse or horses which direction you'll be heading.”

“"Reel in! Reel! Reel!" I shouted, though with no one else within a hundred miles; she could have heard me whisper. You tend to do that when you are really excited. Pick up the slack!” Pick up the slack!"”

“But, to the extent that he remained insecure about his caregiving, particularly in settings outside the safe confines of home, Belinda had to pick up the slack. And the more she picked up the slack, the more he backed off and deferred to her.”

“When one person on a team is learning a new skill, the rest of the team can often pick up the slack and keep the team on track.”

“Most companies have budgets, so hiring an extra person to pick up the slack neither makes sense nor is an option in most companies.”

“In a distributed system, if one node (or hub) fails, the other nodes simply pick up the slack and make sure traffic flows smoothly.”

“In a city financed largely by user fees, government coffers have little to spare for subsidies. Voluntary contributions could pick up the slack.”

“And no wonder a nanny state increasingly tries to pick up the slack.”

“It drove my parents crazy and put pressure on my older brother to pick up the slack and make a success out of his life.”

“A “slack adjuster” is something you sell that gives you a surge of extra profit to help pick up the slack.”

“We call them slack variables because they pick up the slack, so to speak; that is, they take on whatever values are necessary to create equalities (notice that each slack variable must be nonnegative).”

“If a person couldn't sell their (choose one) poetry, play, sculpture, or painting on the open market, why should the taxpayers pick up the slack for the poet, artist, or playwright whose talents would be better utilized in, say, a car wash?”

“Two basic options are left if more export buying and more investment purchases won't pick up the slack when a declining marginal propensity to consume occurs: either more government spending or more government transfers such as increased Social Security payments to encourage more consumer spending.”

“When the world economy is in a downturn, developing countries look to the United States to pick up the slack and absorb excess supply.”

CEFR level