A shack in the woods.
An example of a shack is a broken down cabin.
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Origin of shack
from uncertain or unknown; perhaps American Spanish jacal from Nahuatl xacalli, wooden hutshack up
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noun
intransitive verb
shacked, shack·ing, shacksOrigin of shack
Probably back-formation from dialectal (chiefly southern United States) shackly rickety perhaps from English dialectal shackle to litter, disorder frequentative of shake
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(plural shacks)
(third-person singular simple present shacks, present participle shacking, simple past and past participle shacked)
Some authorities derive this word from Nahuatl xacalli (“adobe hut") , but other authorities consider this phonologically impossible and relate the word instead to ramshackle.
(uncountable)
(third-person singular simple present shacks, present participle shacking, simple past and past participle shacked)
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