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Synonyms

shack

1 American  
[shak] / ʃæk /

noun

  1. a rough cabin; shanty.

  2. Informal. radio shack.

verb phrase

  1. shack up

    1. to live together as spouses without being legally married.

    2. to have illicit sexual relations.

    3. to live in a shack.

      He's shacked up in the mountains.
shack 2 American  
[shak] / ʃæk /

verb (used with object)

Informal.

  1. to chase and throw back; to retrieve.

    to shack a ground ball.
shack 1 British  
/ ʃæk /

noun

  1. a roughly built hut

  2. temporary accommodation put together by squatters

"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

verb

  1. See shack up

"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
shack 2 British  
/ ʃæk /

verb

  1. 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

Etymology

Origin of shack1

1875–80, compare earlier shackly rickety, probably akin to ramshackle ( Mexican Spanish jacal “hut” is a phonetically impossible source)

Origin of shack2

1825–35, apparently special use of dial. shack to shake

Explanation

A shack is a small, rundown building used as a shelter. To shack is to live somewhere. If you tell your parents you want to shack up with your best friend, prepare to get grounded. A shack is a tiny, crude shelter that one person might be living in. It’s not well maintained, and it probably has peeling paint and a leaky roof. A shack is a big step below a house and a small step above a refrigerator box. To shack is to live somewhere, especially somewhere that's not nice. Shacking up is kind of like crashing on someone’s couch, or living somewhere temporarily.

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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.

Brown himself recently met Fisher brothers Bob and Bill for lunch at his usual seafood shack, Sam’s Grill, to discuss the state of the city.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

He lives in a shack without running water and sees his family at best every six months.

From Barron's • Feb. 25, 2026

The South Carolina crab shack fried green tomatoes with a ramekin of remoulade.

From Salon • Feb. 18, 2026

"I was born in 1947. When my mother and I came from the hospital... it was -20C in our shack."

From BBC • Jan. 7, 2026

In the distance, a shabby shack on stilts comes into view.

From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas

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.