hackle
/ˈhækəl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.89 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
One of the long, narrow feathers on the neck of birds, most noticeable on the rooster.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A feather used to make a fishing lure or a fishing lure incorporating a feather.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
By extension (because the hackles of a rooster are lifted when it is angry), the hair on the nape of the neck in dogs and other animals; also used figuratively for humans.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A type of jagged crack extending inwards from the broken surface of a fractured material.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "When the dog got angry, his hackles rose and he growled."
- "Suppose it happened to be the case that the majority of individuals raised their hackles only when they were truly intending to go on for a very long time in the war of attrition. The obvious counterploy would evolve: individuals would give up immediately when an opponent raised his hackles."
- ""COME ALONG YE GRASS-COMBERS, SHOW some hackle," David Ingram, striding ahead, turned back and called."
- "Then, with a smile that seemed to have all the freshness of the matutinal hour in it, she bent again to her work of hackling flax."
- "the other divisions of the kingdom being hackled and torn to pieces"
Etymology
From Middle English hakle (compare the compound meshakele), from Old English hæcla, hacele, from Proto-Germanic *hakulǭ, equivalent to hack + -le. Cognate with Dutch hekel, German Hechel.