hackle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a long, narrow feather from a bird's neck or back, especially one used in an artificial fishing fly

   The fly tier wound a brown hackle around the hook.

2. 2
   noun

   one of the erectile hairs or feathers along an animal's neck or back; usually plural

   The dog's hackles rose when the stranger approached.

3. 3
   noun

   a toothed comb used to separate and straighten flax or hemp fibers; historical or technical

   The worker drew the flax through a hackle before spinning it.

The feather sense descends from Middle English hackle and Old English hacele 'cloak, mantle,' though its relationship to the homonymous flax comb is uncertain. The comb word is Germanic, cognate with Dutch hekel and German Hechel, from a root associated with hooks or teeth.

Topics