Dictionary
Thesaurus
Encyclopedia
Translator
Web
Related Searches
Synonyms
Nearby Words

shack up

 - 5 dictionary results
Shake Up at Amazon
Save on Shake up Free 2-Day Shipping w/Amazon Prime!
Amazon.com/Toys

shack

1  [shak]
Use shack up in a Sentence
–noun
1. a rough cabin; shanty.
2. Informal. radio shack.
—Verb phrase
3. shack up, Slang.
a. to live together as husband and wife without being legally married.
b. to have illicit sexual relations.
c. to live in a shack: He's shacked up in the mountains.
Origin:
1875–80, Americanism; cf. earlier shackly rickety, prob. akin to ramshackle (MexSp jacal “hut” is a phonetically impossible source)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To shack up
Shake Up at Amazon
Save on Shake up Free 2-Day Shipping w/Amazon Prime!
Amazon.com/Toys
shack   (shāk)   
n.  A small, crudely built cabin; a shanty.
intr.v.   shacked, shack·ing, shacks
To live or dwell: farm hands shacking in bunkhouses.

[Possibly from American Spanish jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli, adobe hut : xámitl, adobe + calli, house, hut.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary
shack up (with (so)

  1. in.
    to have a one-night standwith someone; to copulate [with] someone. : He only wanted to shack up with me.
  2. in.
    to move in with someone temporarily, presumably for sexual purposes. : They shacked up for over a year until her parents found out and stopped sending her money.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

shack 
1878, Amer.Eng. and Canadian Eng., of unknown origin, perhaps from Mex.Sp. jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli "wooden hut." Or perhaps a back-formation from dial. Eng. shackly "shaky, rickety" (1843), a derivative of shack, a dial. variant of shake (q.v.). Another theory derives shack from ramshackle. Slang verb phrase shack up "cohabit" first recorded 1935 (in Zora Neale Hurston).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
Idioms & Phrases

shack up

  1. Sleep together or live in sexual intimacy without being married. For example, They had been dating for two months and then decided to shack up. [Slang; first half of 1900s]

  2. Stay or reside with, as in I'm shacking up with my cousin till I find a place of my own. [Slang; first half of 1900s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see shack up on Thesaurus | Reference
FacebookTwitterFollow us:
Partner Sites:
Ask AnswersEviteExpediaHotelsHotwireLife123LiveDailyMy Way