to get down to brass tacks
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
To get down to the essentials, or the tacks which hold the structure together.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to get down to brass tacks” mean?
To get down to the essentials, or the tacks which hold the structure together.
Is “to get down to brass tacks” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.