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hackles

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hack⋅le

1  [hak-uhl] noun, verb, -led, -ling.
Use hackles in a Sentence
–noun
1. one of the long, slender feathers on the neck or saddle of certain birds, as the domestic rooster, much used in making artificial flies for anglers.
2. the neck plumage of a male bird, as the domestic rooster.
3. hackles,
a. the erectile hair on the back of an animal's neck: At the sound of footsteps, the dog raised her hackles.
b. anger, esp. when aroused in a challenging or challenged manner: with one's hackles up.
4. Angling.
a. the legs of an artificial fly made with feathers from the neck or saddle of a rooster or other such bird.
b. hackle fly.
5. a comb for dressing flax or hemp.
–verb (used with object)
6. Angling. to equip with a hackle.
7. to comb, as flax or hemp.
—Idiom
8. raise one's hackles, to arouse one's anger: Such officiousness always raises my hackles.
Also, hatchel, heckle (for defs. 5, 7).

Origin:
1400–50; late ME hakell; see heckle

Related forms:
hackler, noun
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hack⋅le

2  [hak-uhl]
–verb (used with object), -led, -ling.
to cut roughly; hack; mangle.
Origin:
1570–80; hack 1 + -le; c. MD hakkelen

hackle fly

 
–noun Angling.
an artificial fly made with hackles, usually without wings.
Also called hackle.

Origin:
1670–80
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To hackles
hack·le 1   (hāk'əl)   
n.  

  1. Any of the long, slender, often glossy feathers on the neck of a bird, especially a male domestic fowl.

  2. hackles The erectile hairs along the back of the neck of an animal, especially of a dog.

    1. A tuft of cock feathers trimming an artificial fishing fly.

    2. A hackle fly.

tr.v.   hack·led, hack·ling, hack·les
To trim (an artificial fishing fly) with a hackle.

[Middle English hakell, cloak, skin, plumage, possibly from Old English hacele, cloak, mantle.]
hack·le 2   (hāk'əl)   
v.   hack·led, hack·ling, hack·les

v.   tr.
To chop roughly; mangle by hacking.
v.   intr.
To hack.

[Frequentative of hack1.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

hackle 
O.E. hacele "cloak, mantle" (cf. O.H.G. hachul, Goth. hakuls "cloak;" O.N. hekla "hooded frock"). Sense of "bird plumage" is first recorded 1496, though this may be from unrelated M.E. hackle "flax comb" (see heckle) on supposed resemblance of comb to ruffled feathers. Metaphoric extension found in raise one's hackles (as a cock does when angry) is first recorded 1881.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

hackles

see raise someone's hackles.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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