Word: pack Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *pakkô Proto-West Germanic *pakkō Old English *pæcca? ▲ Proto-West Germanic *pakkō Old Dutch *pakko Middle Dutch pakbor.? Middle English pak English pack From Middle English pak, pakke, from Old English *pæcca and/or Middle Dutch pak, packe; both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pakkō, from Proto-Germanic *pakkô (“bundle, pack”). Cognate with Dutch pak (“pack”), Low German Pack (“pack”), German Pack (“pack”), Swedish packe (“pack”), Icelandic pakka, pakki (“package”). Pronunciation: /pæk/, [pʰæk] 1. A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back, but also a load for an animal, a bale. Example: The horses carried the packs across the plain. Example: We do not ask him to make up his mind, but to make up his pack. 2. A number or quantity equal to the contents of a pack 3. A multitude. Example: a pack of lies Example: a pack of complaints 4. A number or quantity of connected or similar things; a collective. 5. A full set of playing cards Example: We were going to play cards, but nobody brought a pack. 6. The assortment of playing cards used in a particular game. Example: cut the pack 7. A group of hounds or dogs, hunting or kept together. Example: African wild dogs hunt by sight, although stragglers use their noses to follow the pack. 8. A wolfpack: a number of wolves, hunting together. Example: If I hurried down to the river, he said, I should be sure to fall in with a pack of wolves, for just as he was driving up the hill close to the sound, they started up the river on the ice. 9. A flock of knots. Example: They form extremely tight flocks, which carpet the ground, giving rise to the descriptive name of "a pack" of knots. 10. A group of people associated or leagued in a bad design or practice; a gang. Example: a pack of thieves Example: "She will try, for she does not know that it is you who dropped the tallow on the shirt; but that can only be done by Christian folks, and not by a pack of trolls like we have in this place; and so I will say that I will not have anybody else for a bride except the one who can wash the shirt clean, and I know you can do that." 11. A group of Cub Scouts. 12. A shook of cask staves. 13. A bundle of sheet iron plates for rolling simultaneously. 14. A large area of floating pieces of ice driven together more or less closely. Example: The ship had to sail round the pack of ice. Example: And now they came to the edge of the pack, and beyond it they could see Shiny Wall looming, through mist, and snow, and storm. But the pack rolled horribly upon the swell, and the ice giants fought and roared, and leapt upon each other's backs, and ground each other to powder […] 15. An envelope, or wrapping, of sheets used in hydropathic practice, called dry pack, wet pack, cold pack, etc., according to the method of treatment. 16. A loose, lewd, or worthless person. Labels: slang Example: That stupid pack did nothing but stare at us throughout the whole project. 17. A tight group of object balls in cue sports. Usually the reds in snooker. 18. The forwards in a rugby team (eight in Rugby Union, six in Rugby League) who with the opposing pack constitute the scrum. Example: The captain had to take a man out of the pack to replace the injured fullback. Example: If the pack wasn't pummelling England, Handre Pollard kept delivering telling blows. 19. The largest group of blockers from both teams skating in close proximity. 20. A package of cigarettes. Labels: slang Example: “Carlo, I told you that three packs a day would kill you long before I was gone.”