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| Australian Centerfold: Some other kangaroo is going to have to pick up the slack for this one. |
To do the work which someone else has stopped doing, but which still needs to be done
When Sue starts going out to work each day, Bob and the kids will have to take up the slack and help more at home.
With our best player injured, other players picked up the slack.
Who will take up the slack when our grant money runs out?
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| Whew! What have I been worrying about? Wait! Do I have to wait a hundred years before I cut myself some? |
To allow someone to do something that is not usually allowed, or to treat someone less severely than is usual or to give someone additional freedom.
Officials have asked the Environmental Protection Agency to cut Utah some slack in enforcing the Clean Air Act.
I'm going to cut you some slack because it's the last day of classes. We don't have to talk anything serious today.
If you and your kids don't agree about their futures, cut them some slack - explain your views, but don't try to force them to agree.
Origins: Both have a nautical origin, that is, they come from the language of British sailors. So many idioms do. Slack means the opposite of tight or taut. Picking up the slack means for (another) pair of hands to pick up a portion of a rope that is hangings loosely and to pull on it. Cut some slack means to stop pulling on a rope and allow another sailor a chance to fix whatever is tangling it or otherwise wrong. It's often used in a broader sense than that, roughly equivalent to "Give me a break."
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