hackle

plural hackles

1. countableuncountableAn instrument with steel pins used to comb out flax or hemp.First known use 15th c.

   Synonyms: heckle, hatchel

2. countablein pluraluncountableusuallyOne of the long, narrow feathers on the neck of birds, most noticeable on the rooster.First known use 15th c.
3. countableuncountablefishingA feather used to make a fishing lure or a fishing lure incorporating a feather.First known use 17th c.
4. countablein pluraluncountableusuallyBy extension (because the hackles of a rooster are lifted when it is angry), the hair on the nape of the neck in dogs and other animals; also used figuratively for humans.First known use 19th c.

   When the dog got angry, his hackles rose and he growled.

   1 more example

   Suppose it happened to be the case that the majority of individuals raised their hackles only when they were truly intending to go on for a very long time in the war of attrition. The obvious counterploy would evolve: individuals would give up immediately when an opponent raised his hackles.

   1976, Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, Kindle edition, OUP Oxford, published 2016, page 101

5. countableuncountableA type of jagged crack extending inwards from the broken surface of a fractured material.
6. countableuncountableA plate with rows of pointed needles used to blend or straighten hair.First known use 20th c.
7. countableuncountableA feather plume on some soldier's uniforms, especially the hat or helmet.

   Synonyms: panache, plume

8. countableuncountableAny flimsy substance unspun, such as raw silk.
9. slanguncountablePluck; courage or energy.

   "COME ALONG YE GRASS-COMBERS, SHOW some hackle," David Ingram, striding ahead, turned back and called.

   1949, Eric Philbrook Kelly, The Amazing Journey of David Ingram, page 11

present singular third person hackles · participle present hackling · participle past hackled · past hackled

1. To dress (flax or hemp) with a hackle; to prepare fibres of flax or hemp for spinning.First known use 17th c.

   Then, with a smile that seemed to have all the freshness of the matutinal hour in it, she bent again to her work of hackling flax.

   1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 155

2. transitiveTo separate, as the coarse part of flax or hemp from the fine, by drawing it through the teeth of a hackle or hatchel.
3. archaictransitiveTo tear asunder; to break into pieces.

   the other divisions of the kingdom being hackled and torn to pieces

   1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC