tackle

American  

[tak-uhl, tay-kuhl] / ˈtæk əl, ˈteɪ kəl /

noun

• tackles
  plural

1. equipment, apparatus, or gear, especially for fishing.

   fishing tackle.

2. a mechanism or apparatus, as a rope and block or a combination of ropes and blocks, for hoisting, lowering, and shifting objects or materials; purchase.

3. any system of leverage using several pulleys.

4. Nautical. the gear and running rigging for handling a ship or performing some task on a ship.

5. an act of tackling, as in football; a seizing, grasping, or bringing down.

6. Football.

   1. either of the linemen stationed between a guard and an end.

   2. the position played by this lineman.

7. (formerly) tack.

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verb (used with object)

• tackles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tackled,
  past participle,  past
• tackling
  present participle

1. to undertake to handle, master, solve, etc..

   to tackle a difficult problem.

2. to deal with (a person) on some problem, issue, etc.

3. to harness (a horse).

4. Football. to seize, stop, or throw down (a ball-carrier).

5. Soccer, Field Hockey. to block or impede the movement or progress of (an opponent having the ball) with the result of depriving the opponent of the ball.

6. to seize suddenly, especially in order to stop.

verb (used without object)

• tackles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• tackled,
  past participle,  past
• tackling
  present participle

1. Football. to tackle an opponent having the ball.

tackle British  

/ ˈteɪkəl, ˈtækəl /

noun

1. any mechanical system for lifting or pulling, esp an arrangement of ropes and pulleys designed to lift heavy weights

2. the equipment required for a particular occupation, etc

   fishing tackle

3. nautical the halyards and other running rigging aboard a vessel

4. slang a man's genitals

5. sport a physical challenge to an opponent, as to prevent his progress with the ball

6. American football a defensive lineman

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verb

1. (tr) to undertake (a task, problem, etc)

2. (tr) to confront (a person, esp an opponent) with a difficult proposition

3. sport (esp in football games) to challenge (an opponent) with a tackle

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tackler
  noun
• retackle
  verb (used with object)

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tackles
  plural

Participles

• tackling
  present
• tackled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• tackle
  simple
• tackles
  simple
• have tackled
  perfect
• has tackled
  perfect
• am tackling
  progressive
• are tackling
  progressive
• is tackling
  progressive
• have been tackling
  perfect progressive
• has been tackling
  perfect progressive

Past

• tackled
  simple
• had tackled
  perfect
• was tackling
  progressive
• were tackling
  progressive
• had been tackling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will tackle
  simple
• will have tackled
  perfect
• will be tackling
  progressive
• will have been tackling
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of tackle

First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English takel “gear, apparatus,” from Middle Low German; akin to take

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Explanation

To tackle a challenge means taking it on, so if you set out to tackle the classics of English literature, you should be prepared spend a lot of time in the library. The word tackle can be a verb or a noun, depending on its use. Today, the noun usually means fishing gear, but when it came into the English language it meant the ropes on a ship. If a ship was lurching about on the high seas, you dealt with that challenge by grabbing the tackle and wrestling it under control. Nowadays, people tend to think of tackling running backs and financial fraud, rather than ropes.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tackle tackles tackled tackling

By the same token, he is a good choice for the reader minded to tackle the texts in their original language.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

"But the authorities of both countries have, for the first time, begun talks on how we can work together to tackle the haze, which appears to be getting worse."

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

Bass has also used the Mayor’s Fund, a charity fund that the mayor can use to tackle issues around the city, to address homelessness and eviction protection.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026

But it was his ambitious proposal to bring together regional rivals India and China, alongside Nepal, to tackle these shared threats that drew particular attention.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

“And I,” said Arthur, “will see about the equipment for tonight. We’ll need shovels, crowbars, block and tackle, rollers...”

From "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH" by Robert C. O'Brien

She won all her tackles, had a 90% passing accuracy rate, took four shots, scored once and had another disallowed.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

He scored a goal, made some big tackles, and was also was able to play out from the back, being the catalyst for Palace, so he goes in as well.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

Not only that, but his team lost both starting tackles and No. 1 receiver Ladd McConkey.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2026

Urschel’s paper tackles a conjecture that has existed since the 1990s and that he first became interested in while an undergraduate.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

Nick puts his books down and Ducky tackles him around the waist.

From "Slam!" by Walter Dean Myers

Goodwin and her colleagues tackled this problem by examining rare events known as tidal disruption events.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

Daniels instead dropped back to pass, ran forward, and inexplicably let himself get tackled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

Jennifer Taylor, National Union of Students Cymru president, said the comments were "dangerous, harmful and are reinforcing a toxic culture on our campuses that must be tackled head on".

From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026

Raman also spent a year as executive director of Time’s Up Entertainment, which tackled sexual harassment in Hollywood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

We’d tackled gun control, the meaning of intellectual property, the structure of American education, and the future of networked computing.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz

A California e-commerce platform is fueling the rise of live shopping in the United States, taking on giants such as TikTok and tackling concerns that the app is draining people’s bank accounts.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026

Others are testing whether degraders are more effective at tackling disease on the first go-round.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

Most of the global targets they set four years ago -- from tackling invasive species to conserving 30 percent of land and oceans, slashing pollution and protecting threatened species -- are off-track.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

"This could be a powerful approach to tackling other cell death repressors or transcription factors that control genes we want to activate in cancer," Nix said.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

The black one greeted Jello by tackling his feet.

From "Julie of the Wolves" by Jean Craighead George

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Related Words

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