pick up the slack

pick up the slack (third-person singular simple present picks up the slack, present participle picking up the slack, simple past and past participle picked up the slack)

1. Alternative form of take up the slack
   1. To tighten something that is slack so that it is taut.
      • 1946, Horace G. Tapply, Tackle Tinkering, page 208:

        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.

      • 2006, Steven Bowers, Marlen Steward, Farming with Horses, page 116:

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

      • 2013, Glen Thomas Hierlmeier, Thoughts From Yesterday: Moments to Remember:

        "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!"

   2. To do work that would otherwise be left undone.
      • 2010, Gillian Ranson, Against the Grain, page 129:

        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.

      • 2012, Stedman Graham, Ken Blanchard, Jon Huntsman, Leading Teams with Integrity:

        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.

      • 2013, Xavier Zinn, Lost Cause: Managing Poor Performers, page 49:

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

      • 2014, Brian Kelly, The Bitcoin Big Bang:

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

   3. To provide extra needed resources.
      • 1998, K. Filip Palda, Home on the Urban Range: An Idea Map for Reforming the City:

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

      • 2008, Diana West, The Death of the Grown-Up:

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

      • 2008, Kimberley White, All The Way:

        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.

      • 2010, Dan S. Kennedy, No B.S. Business Success In The New Economy:

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

   4. (mathematics) To act as a slack variable, converting an inequality into an equality.
      • 2009, Glenn Hurlbert, Linear Optimization: The Simplex Workbook, page 32:

        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).

   5. To consume something that would otherwise go to waste.
      • 2013, Gregg Loomis, The First Casualty:

        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?

      • 2013, John Lindauer, The General Theories of Inflation, Unemployment, and Government Deficits, page 69:

        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.

      • 2017, Summary: Fed Up!: Review and Analysis of Rick Perry's Book:

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