/ʃæk/
OriginUnknown. Some authorities 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.
- 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”
- 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.”
- slangThe room from which a ham radio operator transmits.
- countable, obsolete, uncountableGrain fallen to the ground and left after harvest.
- countable, obsolete, uncountableNuts which have fallen to the ground.
- countable, obsolete, uncountableFreedom 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 ”
“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, an”
- UK, US, countable, dialectal, 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.”
- countable, uncountableBait that can be picked up at sea.
- Nigeria, countable, slang, uncountableA drink, especially an alcoholic one.
- To live (in or with); to shack up.
- obsoleteTo shed or fall, as corn or grain at harvest.
- 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 ”
- UK, dialectalTo wander as a vagabond or tramp.
- US, intransitiveTo hibernate; to go into winter quarters.
- Nigeria, slangTo drink, especially alcohol.
Formsshacks(plural) · shacks(present, singular, third-person) · shacking(participle, present) · shacked(participle, past) · shacked(past) · Shacks(plural)