shack
1[ shak ]
/ ʃæk /
noun
a rough cabin; shanty.
Informal. radio shack.
Verb Phrases
shack up, Slang.
- to live together as spouses without being legally married.
- to have illicit sexual relations.
- to live in a shack: He's shacked up in the mountains.
Nearby words
Origin of shack
11875–80, Americanism; compare earlier shackly rickety, probably akin to ramshackle (Mexican Spanish jacal “hut” is a phonetically impossible source)
Definition for shack (2 of 2)
shack
2[ shak ]
/ ʃæk /
verb (used with object) Informal.
to chase and throw back; to retrieve: to shack a ground ball.
Origin of shack
2Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for shack
British Dictionary definitions for shack (1 of 2)
shack
1/ (ʃæk) /
noun
a roughly built hut
Southern African temporary accommodation put together by squatters
verb
See shack up
Word Origin for shack
C19: perhaps from dialect shackly ramshackle, from dialect shack to shake
British Dictionary definitions for shack (2 of 2)
shack
2/ (ʃæk) /
verb
Midland English dialect to evade (work or responsibility)
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for shack
shack
1878, American English and Canadian English, of unknown origin, perhaps from Mexican Spanish jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli "wooden hut." Or perhaps a back-formation from dialectal English shackly "shaky, rickety" (1843), a derivative of shack, a dialectal variant of shake (v.). Another theory derives shack from ramshackle.
Slang meaning "house" attested by 1910. In early radio enthusiast slang, it was the word for a room or office set aside for wireless use, 1919, perhaps from earlier U.S. Navy use (1917). As a verb, 1891 in the U.S. West in reference to men who "hole up" for the winter; from 1927 as "to put up for the night;" phrase shack up "cohabit" first recorded 1935 (in Zora Neale Hurston).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper