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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

pack.

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.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/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.

    The horses carried the packs across the plain.
  2. A number or quantity equal to the contents of a pack

  3. A multitude.

    a pack of lies
    a pack of complaints
  4. A number or quantity of connected or similar things; a collective.

  5. A full set of playing cards

    We were going to play cards, but nobody brought a pack.
  6. The assortment of playing cards used in a particular game.

    cut the pack
  7. A group of hounds or dogs, hunting or living together.

    collective
  8. A group of wolves, hunting together.

    collective
  9. A flock of knots.

  10. A group of people associated or leagued in a bad design or practice; a gang.

    a pack of thieves
  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.

    The ship had to sail round the pack of ice.
  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.

    slang
    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.

    The captain had to take a man out of the pack to replace the injured fullback.
  19. The largest group of blockers from both teams skating in close proximity.

  20. A package of cigarettes.

    slang
    “Carlo, I told you that three packs a day would kill you long before I was gone.”
Where this word comes from

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”).

verb/pæk/[pʰæk]
  1. To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport. To make a pack of; to arrange closely and securely in a pack; hence, to place and arrange compactly as in a pack

    physical · transitive
    to pack goods in a box;  to pack fish
  2. To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport. To fill in the manner of a pack, that is, compactly and securely, as for transportation; hence, to fill closely or to repletion; to stow away within; to cause to be full; to crowd into.

    physical · transitive
    to pack a trunk;  the play, or the audience, packs the theater
  3. To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport. To wrap in a wet or dry sheet, within numerous coverings.

    physical · transitive
    The doctor gave Kelly some sulfa pills and packed his arm in hot-water bags.
  4. To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport. To make impervious, such as by filling or surrounding with suitable material, or to fit or adjust so as to move without allowing air, water, or steam inside.

    physical · transitive
    to pack a joint;  to pack the piston of a steam engine;  pack someone's arm with ice.
  5. To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport. To make up packs, bales, or bundles; to stow articles securely for transportation.

    intransitive · physical
  6. To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport. To form a compact mass, especially in order for transportation.

    intransitive · physical
    the goods pack conveniently;  wet snow packs well
  7. To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport. To gather together in flocks, herds, schools or similar groups of animals.

    intransitive · physical
    the grouse or the perch begin to pack
  8. To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport. To combine (telegraph messages) in order to send them more cheaply as a single transmission.

    historical · physical · transitive
  9. To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport. To compress (data).

    physical · transitive
  10. To cheat. To sort and arrange (the cards) in the pack to give oneself an unfair advantage

    transitive
  11. To cheat. To bring together or make up unfairly, in order to secure a certain result.

    transitive
    to pack a jury
  12. To cheat. To contrive unfairly or fraudulently; to plot.

    transitive
  13. To cheat. To put together for morally wrong purposes; to join in cahoots.

    intransitive
  14. To load with a pack.

    transitive
    to pack a horse
  15. To load; to encumber.

    figuratively · transitive
  16. To move, send or carry. To cause to go; to send away with baggage or belongings; especially, to send away peremptorily or suddenly; – sometimes with off. See pack off.

    transitive
    to pack a boy off to school
  17. To move, send or carry. To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (on the backs of men or animals).

    US · Western · transitive
  18. To move, send or carry. To depart in haste; – generally with off or away.

    intransitive
  19. To move, send or carry. To carry weapons, especially firearms, on one's person.

    slang · transitive
    packing heat
    A: What was he packing? B: He was packing an M1911 with a custom large-capacity magazine.
  20. To move, send or carry. To have a large penis, as if carrying a large weapon on one's person.

    ambitransitive · slang
    Wow, get a load of him — he's packing.
  21. To move, send or carry. To wear an object, such as a prosthetic penis, inside one’s trousers to appear more male or masculine.

    especially · intransitive
  22. To block a shot, especially in basketball.

    slang · transitive
  23. To play together cohesively, specially with reference to technique in the scrum.

    intransitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English pakken, from the noun (see above). Compare Middle Dutch packen (“to pack”), Middle Low German packen (“to pack”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.