SLACK WATER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Slack water

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/slæk wˈɔtər/ Listen

adjective

Slack adj. (compar. slacker; superl. slackest)

Lax; not tense; not hard drawn; not firmly extended; as, a slack rope.

Weak; not holding fast; as, a slack hand.

Remiss; backward; not using due diligence or care; not earnest or eager; as, slack in duty or service. "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness."

Not violent, rapid, or pressing; slow; moderate; easy; as, business is slack. "With slack pace."

Slack in stays (Naut.), slow in going about, as a ship.

Slack water, the time when the tide runs slowly, or the water is at rest; or the interval between the flux and reflux of the tide.

Slack-water navigation, navigation in a stream the depth of which has been increased, and the current diminished, by a dam or dams.

Synonyms: Loose; relaxed; weak; remiss; backward; abated; diminished; inactive; slow; tardy; dull.

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Etymology of 'Slack water'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Slack water" Quotes from Famous Books

... Stephen's resolution was held motionless, neither advancing nor receding; it was veritably the slack water of her resolution. She was afraid to go on. Not afraid in sense of fear as it is usually understood, but with the opposition of virginal instincts; those instincts which are natural, but whose uses as well as whose powers ...

— The Man • Bram Stoker

... at Ichang we set sail before a strong up-river breeze, and by carefully following all indentations of the river bank managed to keep in fairly slack water, until we reached a point where the Gorges actually commence. Here a tow-line was got out, and by the frantic efforts of half-a-dozen trackers, in addition to the sail, we slowly forged ahead but at not more than two miles an hour, although the foam breaking over ...

— Life and sport in China - Second Edition • Oliver G. Ready

... remove or turn the very serious river-obstacles to an outlet south of New Orleans. Another proposal is to connect the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, and to run a canal from the latter to the Ocmulgee or Savannah River, and thence by the use of slack water to reach the harbors of Savannah and Charleston. This scheme has been clearly proved to be feasible, although the distance seems objectionable. The third (or central) water-line proposed is that so long agitated since the beginning of the present century, so often surveyed and re-surveyed ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 11, No. 24, March, 1873 • Various

... proved equal to the occasion and though with their paddling the swiftness of the current gave the craft a speed of over ten miles an hour, he brought her down without mishap into a wide-spreading cove. They rested, drifting slowly across the slack water. "This can't be far from Cantwell's," Bob was saying, when Jeremy gave a startled exclamation, and pointed toward the shore, some fifty yards away. A little girl in a gray frock stood on the bank, her arms full of golden rod and asters. ...

— The Black Buccaneer • Stephen W. Meader