Shack Definition
shăk
shacked, shacking, shacks
noun
shacks
A small house or cabin that is crudely built and furnished; shanty.
Webster's New World
1996, J M Neeson, Commoners.
The fields were enclosed by Act in 1791, and Tharp gave the cottagers about thirteen acres for their right of shack.
Wiktionary
verb
To live or dwell.
Farm hands shacking in bunkhouses.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
idiom
shack up
- To live together and have sexual relations without being married.
- To live, room, or stay at a place:
I'm shacking up with my cousin till I find a place of my own.
American Heritage
shack up
- to live or room (in a certain place)
- to live (with one's lover)
Webster's New World
Origin of Shack
Probably back-formation from dialectal (chiefly southern United States) shackly rickety perhaps from English dialectal shackle to litter, disorder frequentative of shake
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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Some authorities derive this word from Nahuatl xacalli (“adobe hut"), but other authorities consider this phonologically impossible and relate the word instead to ramshackle.
From Wiktionary
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Obsolete variant of shake. Compare Scots shag (“refuse of barley or oats").
From Wiktionary
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