hold tack

hold tack (third-person singular simple present holds tack, present participle holding tack, simple past and past participle held tack)

1. (idiomatic) To last or hold out.
   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     But if this twig be made of wood
     That will hold tack, I'll make the fur
     Fly 'bout the ears of that old cur;
     And th' other mungrel vermin, Ralph,
     That brav'd us all in his behalf.