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hackles

 [hak-uhl]   Origin

hack·le

1   [hak-uhl] noun, verb, -led, -ling.
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, especially 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.

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Hackles is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
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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 Middle English hakell; see heckle

Related forms
hack·ler, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged

hack·le

2   [hak-uhl]
verb (used with object), -led, -ling.
to cut roughly; hack; mangle.
Origin:
1570–80; hack1 + -le; cognate with Middle Dutch hakkelen
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To hackles
Collins
World English Dictionary
hackles (ˈhækəlz)
 
—pl n
1.  the hairs on the back of the neck and the back of a dog, cat, etc, which rise when the animal is angry or afraid
2.  anger or resentment (esp in the phrases get one's hackles up, make one's hackles rise)

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
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
EXPAND
extension found in raise one's hackles (as a cock does when angry) is first recorded 1881.
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage
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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