Sacked

Sacked is the past tense and past participle of sack, and it is used in several senses in English. In employment, to sack someone means to dismiss them from their job. The term is more common in British English; in American English the verb fire or terminate is often used instead. As an adjective, sacked can describe a person or place that has been dismissed or that has been looted or destroyed in historical contexts, as in a sacked city.

In the employment context, sacking may follow performance issues, misconduct, redundancy, or organizational restructuring. Employment laws in many jurisdictions define requirements such as notice, severance, and protections against unlawful dismissal, including protections against discrimination, retaliation, or constructive dismissal, where the employee resigns due to unacceptable working conditions.

Historically and militarily, to sack a city or town means to loot, plunder, and often burn it; sacking civilizations or fortresses has been a common motif in historical narratives, with the term featured in many accounts and in literature.

In sports, particularly American football, a sack is an act by which a defensive player tackles the quarterback behind the line of scrimmage before a pass is released. A quarterback who is tackled in this manner is said to be sacked, and the statistic is credited to the defense as a sack.

Etymology traces sack to the sense of a bag or loot and developed into verbs meaning to plunder or to dismiss. Usage varies by region and context, but sacked remains a common term in journalism, law, sports, and historical writing.