pick up the slack

In such cases even a four-to-one multiplying reel is much too slow to pick up the slack, and a single-action fly reel is hopelessly inadequate.

But, to the extent that he remained insecure about his caregiving, particularly in settings outside the safe confines of home, Belinda had to pick up the slack. And the more she picked up the slack, the more he backed off and deferred to her.

In a city financed largely by user fees, government coffers have little to spare for subsidies. Voluntary contributions could pick up the slack.

We call them slack variables because they pick up the slack, so to speak; that is, they take on whatever values are necessary to create equalities (notice that each slack variable must be nonnegative).

If a person couldn't sell their (choose one) poetry, play, sculpture, or painting on the open market, why should the taxpayers pick up the slack for the poet, artist, or playwright whose talents would be better utilized in, say, a car wash?