Link Centre Dictionary

shack

UK/ʃæk/ US/ˈʃæk/ fairly common slang uk us
noun (1) verb (2)

noun

1.

verb

1.

make one''s home or live in

  • “She resides officially in Iceland”
  • “I live in a 200-year old house”
  • “These people inhabited all the islands that are now deserted”
  • “The plains are sparsely populated”
Synonyms
2.

move, proceed, or walk draggingly pr slowly

  • “John trailed behind behis class mates”
  • “The Mercedes trailed behind the horse cart”
Synonyms

Origin

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”).

Phrases

  • clam shack
  • common of shack
  • love shack
  • radio shack
  • shack rat
  • shotgun shack
  • sugar shack
  • whack shack

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.