pack

Etymology 1

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”).

noun

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.
   We do not ask him to make up his mind, but to make up his pack. 1854, Henry David Thoreau, Slavery in Massachusetts
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 kept together.
   African wild dogs hunt by sight, although stragglers use their noses to follow the pack. 2005, John D. Skinner, Christian T. Chimimba, The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion
8. A wolfpack: a number of wolves, hunting together.
   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. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 117
9. A flock of knots.
   They form extremely tight flocks, which carpet the ground, giving rise to the descriptive name of "a pack" of knots. 1988, Michael Cady, Rob Hume, editors, The Complete Book of British Birds, page 154
10. A group of people associated or leagued in a bad design or practice; a gang.
    a pack of thieves
    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. 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 240
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. (medicine) 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. (slang) A loose, lewd, or worthless person.
17. (snooker">snooker, pool) A tight group of object balls in cue sports. Usually the reds in snooker">snooker.
18. (rugby) 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.
    If the pack wasn't pummelling England, Handre Pollard kept delivering telling blows. November 3, 2019, Liam de Carme, “Boks, you beauties”, in Sunday Times
19. (roller derby) The largest group of blockers from both teams skating in close proximity.

Etymology 2

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

verb

1. (physical) To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport.
   1. (transitive) To make a pack of; to arrange closely and securely in a pack; hence, to place and arrange compactly as in a pack
      to pack goods in a box;  to pack fish
      strange materials wound up in that shape and texture, and packed together with wonderful art in the several cavities of the skull 1712, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, number 275
   2. (transitive) 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.
      to pack a trunk;  the play, or the audience, packs the theater
      By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country. 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court
   3. (transitive) To wrap in a wet or dry sheet, within numerous coverings.
      The doctor gave Kelly some sulfa pills and packed his arm in hot-water bags.
   4. (transitive) 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.
      to pack a joint;  to pack the piston of a steam engine;  pack someone's arm with ice.
   5. (intransitive) To make up packs, bales, or bundles; to stow articles securely for transportation.
   6. (intransitive) To form a compact mass, especially in order for transportation.
      the goods pack conveniently;  wet snow packs well
   7. (intransitive, of animals) To gather together in flocks, herds, schools or similar groups of animals.
      the grouse or the perch begin to pack
   8. (transitive, historical) To combine (telegraph messages) in order to send them more cheaply as a single transmission.
2. (social) To cheat.
   1. (transitive, card games) To sort and arrange (the cards) in the pack to give oneself an unfair advantage
   2. (transitive) To bring together or make up unfairly, in order to secure a certain result.
      to pack a jury
      The expected council was dwindling into[…]a packed assembly of Italian bishops. 1687, Francis Atterbury, An answer to some considerations on the spirit of Martin Luther and the original of the Reformation
   3. (transitive) To contrive unfairly or fraudulently; to plot.
   4. (intransitive) To put together for morally wrong purposes; to join in cahoots.
3. (transitive) To load with a pack
   to pack a horse
4. (transitive, figurative) to load; to encumber.
5. To move, send or carry.
   1. (transitive) To cause to go; to send away with baggage or belongings; especially, to send away peremptorily or suddenly; – sometimes with off. See pack off.
      to pack a boy off to school
   2. (transitive, US, chiefly Western US) To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (on the backs of men or animals).
   3. (intransitive) To depart in haste; – generally with off or away.
      Poor Stella must pack off to town. 1723, Jonathan Swift, Stella at Wood-Park
      You shall pack, / And never more darken my doors again. 1842, Alfred Tennyson, Dora
   4. (transitive, slang) To carry weapons, especially firearms, on one's person.
      packing heat
6. (transitive, sports, slang) To block a shot, especially in basketball.
7. (intransitive, rugby, of the forwards in a rugby team) To play together cohesively, specially with reference to their technique in the scrum.
8. (intransitive, LGBT, of a drag king, trans man, etc.) To wear an object, such as a prosthetic penis, inside one’s trousers to appear more male or masculine.
   I am a butch bisexual woman […] Frequently I like to appear as masculine as I can, often passing for male on the street. […] Sometimes I pack when I go out, putting my dildo in my pants and wearing my dick out of the house. 1995, Robin Sweeney, “Too Butch to Be Bi (or You Can't Judge a Boy by Her Lover)”, in Naomi Tucker, Liz Highleyman, Rebecca Kaplan, editors, Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions, Binghamton: The Haworth Press, page 181