shack
1 Americanverb (used with object)
noun
-
a roughly built hut
-
temporary accommodation put together by squatters
verb
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing shack
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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.
See Examples For:
The West Hollywood clam shack conjures Rhode Island on the West Coast, be it with clams of all kinds, lobster cooked just right or oysters treated with reverence.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 23, 2026
Victor recalls his family living for years in a windowless dockworkers’ shack by the port.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026
"It had a wood stove and no running water and a tin roof, rusted. It was a funky little shack."
From BBC ● Mar. 17, 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 shack is like the setting for a horror movie.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
Where beach shacks once stood, now you’ll find estates hidden behind hedges and marinas packed with yachts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 20, 2026
Its irregular volumes, pastel colors, elevated decks, jagged rooflines and collage of materials — stucco, corrugated metal, broken tile — echo the local mashup of artist studios, surf shacks and light-industrial sheds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
From the scrappy metal shacks packed tightly on the banks of the thin Jukskei river, the sparkly skyline of Johannesburg's richest neighbourhood less than two miles away is another world.
From Barron's ● Nov. 28, 2025
Tourists see abundance — the beach houses, the boutiques, the seafood shacks — but the year-round population lives in an entirely different economy.
From Salon ● Oct. 11, 2025
Despite the many shacks, a few narrow, dark, rat-infested alleyways still remained.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
