shack
nounverbnounverbadjectivecommon in dialogue
- //ʃæk//
A crude, roughly built hut or cabin.
noun
- 1
A crude, roughly built hut or cabin.
The men resided in a huge bunk house, which consisted of one room only, with a shack outside where the cooking was done. In the large room were a dozen bunks ; half of them in a very dishevelled state, […]
- 2
Any poorly constructed or poorly furnished building.
The stations are generally very poor, even for a branch line; some are mere wooden shacks, and Moniaive itself is one of the least prepossessing terminal stations I have ever seen.
- 3
slangThe room from which a ham radio operator transmits.
Etymology
Unknown. Some scholars derive this word from Mexican Spanish jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli (“adobe hut”). Alternatively, the word may instead come from ramshackle/ramshackly (e.g., old ramshackly house) or perhaps it may be a back-formation from shackly. Compare Tavringer Romani hak (“place, house”), Traveller Norwegian hak (“place”).
verb
- 1
To live (in or with); to shack up.
noun
- 1
obsoleteGrain fallen to the ground and left after harvest.
- 2
obsoleteNuts which have fallen to the ground.
- 3
obsoleteFreedom to pasturage in order to feed upon shack.
[…] first comes the case of tenants with a customary right to shack their sheep and cattle who have overburdened the fields with a larger number of beasts than their tenement entitles them to, or who have allowed their beasts to feed in the field out of shack time.
1996, J M Neeson, Commoners http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0521567742&id=2CqhjjiwLtEC&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&sig=3geUREguU3vTYj_05PtAfzFODDA The fields were enclosed by Act in 1791, and Tharp gave the cottagers about thirteen acres for their right of shack.
- 4
obsoleteA shiftless fellow; a low, itinerant beggar; a vagabond; a tramp.
Some peple hev a fakilty two get along into the world, whilst others air poor shacks & good for nothing.
All the poor old shacks about the town found a friend in Deacon Marble.
- 5
Bait that can be picked up at sea.
- 6
slangA drink, especially an alcoholic one.
Etymology
Obsolete variant of shake. Compare Scots shag (“refuse of barley or oats”).
verb
- 1
obsoleteTo shed or fall, as corn or grain at harvest.
- 2
obsoleteTo feed in stubble, or upon waste.
They [turkeys] are then sold‥to the larger farmers to ‘shack’ upon the barley or oat stubbles.
[…] first comes the case of tenants with a customary right to shack their sheep and cattle who have overburdened the fields with a larger number of beasts than their tenement entitles them to, or who have allowed their beasts to feed in the field out of shack time.
- 3
To wander as a vagabond or tramp.
- 4
To hibernate; to go into winter quarters.
- 5
slangTo drink, especially alcohol.
adjective
- 1
Variant of shagslangAlternative form of shag (“exhausted; tiring”).
Etymology
From shagged or shagged out.
Forms
- plural
- shacks
- comparative
- more shack
- superlative
- most shack
- past tense
- shacked
- past participle
- shacked
- present participle
- shacking
- third person singular
- shacks