shack

Dictionary: shack (shăk) pronunciation

n.
A small, crudely built cabin; a shanty.

intr.v., shacked, shack·ing, shacks.
To live or dwell: farm hands shacking in bunkhouses.

idiom:

shack up Slang.

To sleep together or live in sexual intimacy without being married.
To live, room, or stay at a place: I'm shacking up with my cousin till I find a place of my own.

[Possibly from American Spanish jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli, adobe hut : xámitl, adobe + calli, house, hut.]

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Thesaurus: shack

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noun

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WordNet: shack

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: small crude shelter used as a dwelling
Synonyms: hovel, hut, hutch, shanty

The verb shack has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: make one's home or live in
Synonyms: dwell, reside, live, inhabit, people, populate, domicile, domiciliate

Meaning #2: to walk or proceed draggingly, slowly
Synonyms: trail, trudge

Wikipedia: Shack

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For the Liverpool band, see Shack (band).

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

A large shack near Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Shacks are most often used for storage or have been abandoned.

A shack is a type of small house that is in disrepair. The word may derive from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word xacalli or "adobe house" by way of Mexican Spanish xacal/jacal, which has the same meaning as "shack".^[1] It was a common usage among people of Mexican ancestry throughout the U.S. southwest and was picked up by speakers of American English.

It is possible that up to a billion people worldwide live in shacks^[2]. Fire is a key hazard in shack settlements^[3]. Shack settlements are also sometimes known as slums or shanty towns.

In Australia, particularly in Tasmania^[4], shacks were originally holiday homes located on crown land such as along river banks (especially the Murray River) or near beaches. They were roughly built as they were likely to get washed away in floods, and had no legal title on the land they were built on. Now, a lot of the shack owners have freehold title to their land, and are subject to building codes to reduce the risk of damage or injury from floods and storms. Many are now quite grand holiday homes and summer houses. The New Zealand equivalent is called a bach.

In South Africa, shacks (also referred to as mikhukhu or imijondolo^[5]) are an increasingly common form of accommodation for millions of people and are mostly found in or around urban areas, particularly on the outskirts of larger cities. In recent years shack dwellers have organised major protests around the country. The largest movement of shack dwellers is called Abahlali baseMjondolo (loosely translated: "The Residents from the Shacks").

Other meanings of the word

In amateur radio jargon, a shack refers to the place where an amateur radio operator's radio sending and receiving apparatus is located and operated. The term originally meant that part of a ship where the radio apparatus was located and operated. This is the inspiration for the name 'RadioShack'.
In military aviation jargon, a "shack" refers to a successful, direct hit on a ground target.
Bus stops are often referred to as "shacks" by commuters and the common passerby because some bus stops have roofs on top of the stops for shade and protection from the rain.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shacks

^ http://www.bartleby.com/61/75/S0307500.html
^ Planet of Slums, Verso, 2006
^ A Big Devil in the Jondolos: A report on shack fires by Matt Birkinshaw
^ Matthew Newton, Shack Life: Tasmanian shacks and shack culture (2003) ISBN 0646428780
^ http://www.azapo.org.za/publications/utlwangazapo.htm^{[dead link]}

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

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Translations: Shack

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - skur, hytte
v. intr. - bo, flytte

idioms:

shack up flytte sammen med

Nederlands (Dutch)
hut, hok, schuurtje

Français (French)
n. - cabane
v. intr. - se mettre en ménage

idioms:

shack up se mettre en ménage (avec qn)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Hütte
v. - nachlaufen

idioms:

shack up zusammenleben mit

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - καλύβα, παράγκα, (καθομ.) τσαρδί, αλήτης
v. - (καθομ.) καταλύω

idioms:

shack up συγκατοικώ

Italiano (Italian)
capanna

idioms:

shack up convivere

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cabana (f), refúgio (m)

idioms:

shack up coabitar

Русский (Russian)
лачуга, комнатка

idioms:

shack up временно жить, переночевать, сожительствовать без брака

Español (Spanish)
n. - cabaña, barraca, choza, rancho
v. intr. - vivir juntos como marido y mujer sin estar legalmente casados, vivir en una cabaña, tener relaciones sexuales ilícitas

idioms:

shack up cohabitar, vivir juntos

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - timmerkoja, hydda, kåk, biträdande konduktör på tåg
v. - bo, flytta

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
简陋木屋, 棚屋, 小室, 间, 居住, 暂住

idioms:

shack up 同居, 同住

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 簡陋木屋, 棚屋, 小室, 間
v. intr. - 居住, 暫住

idioms:

shack up 同居, 同住

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 오두막, (화차의) 제동수, 방랑자의 회합 장소
v. intr. - 살다, 머무르다, 동거하다

idioms:

shack up 동거하다, 불의의 관계를 갖다, 살다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 丸太小屋, バラック, ぼろ家
v. - 住む

idioms:

shack up 同棲する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) كوخ (فعل) يقيم, يحيا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮צריף, סוכה, ביתן, בקתה‬
v. intr. - ‮גרו יחד, בייחוד כאוהבים‬

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Shopping: shack

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Radio Shack	Radio Shack Pro 89
radio shack	Radio Shack Printwheel

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		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Shack". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more