get down to brass tacks

English

WOTD – 24 November 2025

Etymology

The origin is uncertain. It is probably a variant of the earlier term down to the brass (see, for example, the 1854 quotation),^[1] and the following etymologies have been suggested:

The term refers to the brass tacks used in upholstery which have to be removed when a piece of furniture is reupholstered, or brass tacks stuck into the counter of a draper’s shop or hardware store to measure items precisely in yards.^[1]^[2]^[3]
Another possibility is that the brass tacks are nails used to seal coffin lids,^[1] or tacks used to decorate or indicate a deceased person’s initials on such lids, and thus the term refers to dealing with matters as serious as death.^[4]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡɛt ˈdaʊn tə bɹɑːs ˈtæks/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ɡɛt ˈdaʊn tə bɹæs ˈtæks/
Audio (General American): (file)
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Rhymes: -æks

Verb

get down to brass tacks (third-person singular simple present gets down to brass tacks, present participle getting down to brass tacks, simple past got down to brass tacks, past participle gotten down to brass tacks or got down to brass tacks)

(originally and chiefly US, idiomatic) To (start to) consider or deal with the most important details or facts about something.
- [1854 April 1, “Legislative matters. […] Log-rolling of a land grant memorial through the Assembly”, in Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, volume X (New Series), number 2939, Milwaukee, Wis.: Rufus King & Co., →OCLC, page 2, column 2:
  He did not wish to delay action, but was ready to vote instanter.—A reference now would amount to a defeat of the memorial. It was better to come right down to the brass and vote.]
- [1863 January 21, Edward Hopkins Cushing, editor, The Tri-weekly Telegraph, Houston, Tex.: Allen & Brockett, →OCLC:
  When you come down to brass tacks—if we may be allowed the expression—everybody is governed by selfishness.]
- 1920 February 24, Sydney Anderson, “Statement of Mr. C. W. Swayze, Denver, Colo.”, in Meat-packer Legislation: Hearings before the Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, Sixty-sixth Congress, Second Session on Meat-packer Legislation […] Part 1, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, →OCLC, page 1366:
  It would have been just as well for you to have gotten down to "brass tacks," in some of the statements you have been making about the bill instead of getting "down to brass tacks" now, if you leave it to me.
- 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Describes Some Strange Doings in Hammersmith”, in The Land of Mist, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published 1926, →OCLC, page 48:
  But I called here with a purpose. I expect you are a busy man and I know that I am, so I'll get down to the brass tacks.
- 1927 March 2, “Brass Tacks”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume CLXXII, London: […] [Punch] office, […], →OCLC, page 228, column 2:
  [W]hen the conversation gets down to brass tacks it generally stays there, for there is no more to be said. In the region of brass tacks there are no irrelevancies or charming side-issues, and without these, of course, there is no conversation, everyone feels uncomfortable, and the guests who have come from Hampstead begin to murmur that it is time they were going home.
- [1932, T[homas] S[tearns] Eliot, “[Unfinished Poems.] Sweeney Agonistes: Fragment of an Agon.”, in Collected Poems 1909–1935, London: Faber & Faber […], published September 1954, →OCLC, page 127:
  That's all the facts when you come to brass tacks: Birth, and copulation, and death.]
- 1933 December 23, Sarah Comstock, “Ninety Million Lamps for Christmas Trees: Holiday Lighting Grows Apace, with the Tremendous Increase in the Use of Outdoor Trees Adding a New Factor”, in The Literary Digest, volume 116, number 26 (number 2279 overall), New York, N.Y.: Funk & Wagnalls Company, […], →OCLC, page 28, column 1:
  In every phase of life we have been getting down to brass tacks these days; even Christmas is at last reduced to statistics. The cry for facts and realism has brought the electricity-minded to the point of computing Christmas in terms of lamps as used for indoor and outdoor trees, wreaths, candles and other Yuletide decorations over the entire United States.
- 1935, Clifford Odets, “Waiting for Lefty”, in Waiting for Lefty and Till the Day I Die: Two Plays, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →OCLC, episode 1 (Joe and Edna), page 10:
  joe: I'd get another job if I could. There's no work—you know it. / […] / edna: Who's the man in the family, you or me? / joe: That's no answer. Get down to brass tacks. Christ, gimme a break, too! A coffee cake and java all day. I'm hungry, too, Babe. I'd work my fingers to the bone if— […]
- 1979, Stephen King, The Dead Zone, London: Futura Publications, published 1987, →ISBN, page 337:
  We're gonna have all the gas and oil we need! We're gonna stop playing games with these Arabs and get down to brass tacks! Ain't gonna be no old people in New Hampsire turned into Popsicles this coming winter like there was last winter!
- 1994 May 21, Quentin Tarantino, Roger Avary, Pulp Fiction, spoken by Winston Wolfe (Harvey Keitel), Los Angeles, Calif.: Miramax Films, →OCLC:
  You must be Jules, which would make you Vincent. Let's get down to brass tacks, gentlemen. If I was informed correctly, the clock is ticking. Is that right, Jimmie?
- 2023 April 2, Pippa Crerar, Robyn Vinter, quoting Lisa Nandy, “Suella Braverman denies Brexit to blame for Dover queues of 14 hours”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[2], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 3 February 2024:
  And if the government got a grip, got down to brass tacks and started doing their actual job, all these things could be avoided.

Synonyms

Translations

to (start to) consider or deal with the most important details or facts about something

Dutch: ter zake komen
Finnish: käydä asiaan, mennä asiaan
French: passer aux choses sérieuses
German: zur Sache kommen (de)
Icelandic: kjarni málsins m (heart of the matter), koma sér að efninu, staðreyndirnar (is) f pl (facts), þau atriði sem máli skipta (relevant issues)
Italian: darsi da fare (it), darsi una mossa, entrare nei dettagli, rimboccarsi le maniche, venire al dunque (literally “to come to the ‘therefore’”), venire al sodo
Norwegian: ta tyren ved hornene (no)
Polish: przechodzić do rzeczy impf, przejść do rzeczy pf
Russian: переходить к сути дела (perexoditʹ k suti dela)
Spanish: ir al grano (es)
Swedish: komma till saken
Ukrainian: перейти до справи (perejty do spravy), перейти до суті (perejty do suti)

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 Dave Wilton (5 April 2023), “brass tacks”, in Wordorigins.org.
^ “get down to brass tacks”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
^ Michael Quinion (2004), “Brass tacks”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN, pages 52–53.
^ Roger Schlueter (31 January 2018), “Here’s the origin of the phrase ‘getting down to brass tacks’”, in Belleville News-Democrat‎^[1], Belleville, Ill.: McClatchy Newspapers, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2 April 2021.