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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

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.

There was an old man sitting in front of a wooden shack, spinning.

From Literature

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

From Barron's

While some spearers use radar and other high-tech gizmos, many just sit and wait for a sturgeon to pass under their shack before pouncing.

From The Wall Street Journal

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

From Salon

The FBI had tracked the Unabomber futilely for 18 years before his capture in a hermit’s shack in Montana in April 1996.

From Los Angeles Times

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.