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 soft hackle makes it a wet fly; you fish it beneath the surface.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 12, 2016
I can read for hours about bugs and knots and how to trick a fish with hair and hackle, but honestly, those are just the perks.
From New York Times ● Jul. 31, 2014
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
Flax for home-made garments was raised, pulled up by hand, spread, rotted, broken, skutched, hackled, etc.
From Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 A Political History of Slavery in the United States Together With a Narrative of the Campaigns and Battles of the Civil War In Which the Author Took Part: 1861-1865 by Keifer, Joseph Warren
The other divisions of the kingdom being hackled and torn to pieces, and separated from all their habitual means, and even principles of union, cannot, for some time at least, confederate against her.
From Selections from the Speeches and Writings of Edmund Burke by Burke, Edmund
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
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
"Well, meantime, till the world's put right by your friends, you get on with your hackling, my old bird, else you'll have the spreaders grumbling," answered Mr. Best.
From The Spinners by Phillpotts, Eden
All that day, whilst the industrious grummelfuhr hackled and received good cheer in the form of krapfen, for hackling is hard work, Moro attended in the character of a kind but strict overseer.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 12, No. 31, October, 1873 by Various
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.
