Adjacent Words

Shack definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SHACK, n. In ancient customs of England, a liberty of witer pasturage. In Norfolk and Suffolk, the lord of the manot has a shack, that is, liberty of feeding his sheep at pleasure on his tenants' lands during the dix winter months. In Norfolk, shack extends to the common for hogs, in all men's grounds, from harvest to seed time; whence to go a-shack, is to feed at large.
In New England, shack is used in a somewhat similar sense for mast or the food of swine, and for feeding at large or in the forest, [for we have no manors,] and I have heard a shiftless fellow, a vagabond, called a shack.
SHACK, v.i.
1. To shed, as corn at harvest. [Local.]
2. To feed in stubble, or upon the waste corn of the field. [Local.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: small crude shelter used as a dwelling [syn: hovel, hut, hutch, shack, shanty] v
1: make one's home in a particular place or community; "may parents reside in Florida" [syn: reside, shack, domicile, domiciliate]
2: move, proceed, or walk draggingly or slowly; "John trailed behind his class mates"; "The Mercedes trailed behind the horse cart" [syn: trail, shack]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: probably back-formation from English dialect shackly rickety Date: 1878 1. hut, shanty 2. a room or similar enclosed structure for a particular person or use <a guard shack>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. a roughly built hut or cabin. --v.intr. (foll. by up) sl. cohabit, esp. as lovers. Etymology: perh. f. Mex. jacal, Aztec xacatli wooden hut

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shack Shack, v. t. [Prov. E., to shake, to shed. See Shake.] 1. To shed or fall, as corn or grain at harvest. [Prov. Eng.] --Grose. 2. To feed in stubble, or upon waste corn. [Prov. Eng.] 3. To wander as a vagabond or a tramp. [Prev.Eng.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shack Shack, n. [Cf. Scot. shag refuse of barley or oats.] 1. The grain left after harvest or gleaning; also, nuts which have fallen to the ground. [Prov. Eng.] 2. Liberty of winter pasturage. [Prov. Eng.] 3. A shiftless fellow; a low, itinerant beggar; a vagabond; a tramp. [Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U.S.] --Forby. All the poor old shacks about the town found a friend in Deacon Marble. --H. W. Beecher. Common of shack (Eng.Law), the right of persons occupying lands lying together in the same common field to turn out their cattle to range in it after harvest. --Cowell.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Shack Shack, n. [Cf. Shack, v. i.] A hut; a shanty; a cabin. [Colloq.] These miserable shacks are so low that their occupants cannot stand erect. --D. C. Worcester.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(shacks, shacking, shacked) A shack is a simple hut built from tin, wood, or other materials. N-COUNT

Moby Thesaurus

Nissen hut, Quonset hut, booth, box, bum, cabin, caboose, camp, cot, cottage, crib, derelict, drifter, dump, floater, garrote, gatehouse, hobo, hovel, hut, hutch, kiosk, lean-to, lodge, outbuilding, outhouse, pavilion, sentry box, shanty, shed, stall, street arab, tollbooth, tollhouse, tramp, traveler