hackle
1 Americannoun
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one of the long, slender feathers on the neck or saddle of certain birds, as the domestic rooster, much used in making artificial flies for anglers.
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the neck plumage of a male bird, as the domestic rooster.
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hackles,
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the erectile hair on the back of an animal's neck.
At the sound of footsteps, the dog raised her hackles.
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anger, especially when aroused in a challenging or challenged manner.
with one's hackles up.
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Angling.
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the legs of an artificial fly made with feathers from the neck or saddle of a rooster or other such bird.
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a comb for dressing flax or hemp.
verb (used with object)
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Angling. to equip with a hackle.
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to comb, as flax or hemp.
idioms
verb (used with object)
noun
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any of the long slender feathers on the necks of poultry and other birds
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angling
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parts of an artificial fly made from hackle feathers, representing the legs and sometimes the wings of a real fly
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short for hackle fly
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a feathered ornament worn in the headdress of some British regiments
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a steel flax comb
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hackle1
First recorded in 1450–1400; late Middle English hakel(e), hakle “animal's skin; bird's plumage”; see also heckle
Origin of hackle2
First recorded in 1560–70; hack 1 + -le; cognate with Middle Dutch hakkelen
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The fly he used, and still relies on almost exclusively, is a brown pheasant-tail-and-partridge soft hackle.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 12, 2016
THE DRY FLY is the classic type of artificial fly made by winding a hackle feather around the shaft of a hook to get that buggy look.
From New York Times ● Apr. 18, 2015
What raises my hackle feathers is the insistence of some writers that a given drink must be made with exactly their specified proportions.
From Slate ● Apr. 5, 2013
A package of the most popular fly tying hackle for hair extensions, a black and white striped feather called grizzly saddle, would normally retail anywhere from $40 to $60.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 3, 2011
Every hackle on his body rose, and he knew that very soon she would, like all of her sisters before her, put to him the death-knell question “Where you been?”
From "Sula" by Toni Morrison
The flax has since been broken, scutched, hackled, spun, and woven to create the fabric linen.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2021
Her Shirley is singular not in talent here but in the total unpredictability of her reactions – whether pushing out or drawing in – nevertheless grounded in guarded, hackled emotional need.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 3, 2020
Get her so hackled she’d make the wrong change for stamps.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
June Dun—a feather from Dottrel's back, hackled on a body of blue Rabbit's fur and drab silk, dun hackle for legs.
From The Teesdale Angler by Lakeland, R.
The second shortened long hemp, that it might be more conveniently hackled and drawn.
From The Spinners by Phillpotts, Eden
Rams QB Matthew Stafford’s wife Kelly apologized for throwing a pretzel at a hackling 49ers fan during Monday’s loss.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 19, 2021
“What in Frith’s name makes a noise like that?” said Bigwig, his great fur cap hackling between his ears.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
The separation between the fibre and the wood appears to have been as thorough and effectual as at this day by the process of rotting and hackling.
From Prehistoric Textile Fabrics Of The United States, Derived From Impressions On Pottery Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 393-425 by Holmes, William Henry
Levi Baggs, the hackler, proceeded presently to weigh his material and was taking it over the bridge to the hackling shop when he met John Best, the foreman.
From The Spinners by Phillpotts, Eden
But for Lady Twombley I could never endure the badgering, the browbeating, the hackling, for which I seem especially selected.
From The Cabinet Minister A farce in four acts by Pinero, Arthur Wing, Sir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
