hackle

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: hack=le

CIDE DICTIONARY

hackle, n. [See Heckle, and cf. Hatchel.].

•  A comb for dressing flax, raw silk, etc.; a hatchel.  [1913 Webster]
•  Any flimsy substance unspun, as raw silk.  [1913 Webster]
•  One of the peculiar, long, narrow feathers on the neck of fowls, most noticeable on the cock, -- often used in making artificial flies; hence, any feather so used.  [1913 Webster]
•  An artificial fly for angling, made of feathers.  [1913 Webster]

hackle, v. t. 

•  To separate, as the coarse part of flax or hemp from the fine, by drawing it through the teeth of a hackle or hatchel.  [1913 Webster]
•  To tear asunder; to break in pieces.  [1913 Webster]

  "The other divisions of the kingdom being hackled and torn to pieces."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

hackle, n. & v.
--n.
1 a long feather or series of feathers on the neck or saddle of a domestic cock and other birds.
2 Fishing an artificial fly dressed with a hackle.
3 a feather in a Highland soldier's bonnet.
4 (in pl.) the erectile hairs along the back of a dog, which rise when it is angry or alarmed.
5 a steel comb for dressing flax.
--v.tr. dress or comb with a hackle.

Idiom

make one's hackles rise cause one to be angry or indignant.

Etymology

ME hechele, hakele, prob. f. OE f. WG

THESAURUS

hackle

card, comb, covert, crest, curry, feather, feathers, hack, haggle, hatchel, heckle, mail, panache, pinion, plumage, plume, plumule, quill, rake, scapular, slash, speculum, topknot, tuft

ROGET THESAURUS

hackle

Disjunction

VB be disjoined, come off, fall off, come to pieces, fall to pieces, peel off, get loose, disjoin, disconnect, disengage, disunite, dissociate, dispair, divorce, part, dispart, detach, separate, cut off, rescind, segregate, set apart, keep apart, insulate, isolate, throw out of gear, cut adrift, loose, unloose, undo, unbind, unchain, unlock, unpack, unravel, disentangle, set free, sunder, divide, subdivide, sever, dissever, abscind, circumcise, cut, incide, incise, saw, snip, nib, nip, cleave, rive, rend, slit, split, splinter, chip, crack, snap, break, tear, burst, rend, rend asunder, rend in twain, wrench, rupture, shatter, shiver, cranch, crunch, craunch, chop, cut up, rip up, hack, hew, slash, whittle, haggle, hackle, discind, lacerate, scamble, mangle, gash, hash, slice, cut up, carve, dissect, anatomize, dislimb, take to pieces, pull to pieces, pick to pieces, tear to pieces, tear to tatters, tear piecemeal, tear limb from limb, divellicate, skin, disintegrate, dismember, disbranch, disband, disperse, dislocate, disjoint, break up, mince, comminute, apportion, part, part company, separate, leave.

Sharpness

N sharpness, acuity, acumination, spinosity, point, spike, spine, spicule, spiculum, needle, hypodermic needle, tack, nail, pin, prick, prickle, spur, rowel, barb, spit, cusp, horn, antler, snag, tag thorn, bristle, Adam's needle, bear grass, tine, yucca, nib, tooth, tusk, spoke, cog, ratchet, crag, crest, arete, cone peak, sugar loaf, pike, aiguille, spire, pyramid, steeple, beard, chevaux de frise, porcupine, hedgehog, brier, bramble, thistle, comb, awn, beggar's lice, bur, burr, catchweed, cleavers, clivers, goose, grass, hairif, hariff, flax comb, hackle, hatchel, heckle, wedge, knife edge, cutting edge, blade, edge tool, cutlery, knife, penknife, whittle, razor, razor blade, safety razor, straight razor, electric razor, scalpel, bistoury, lancet, plowshare, coulter, colter, hatchet, ax, pickax, mattock, pick, adze, gill, billhook, cleaver, cutter, scythe, sickle, scissors, shears, pruning shears, cutters, wire cutters, nail clipper, paper cutter, sword, bodkin, belduque, bowie knife, paring knife, bushwhacker, drawing knife, drawing shave, microtome, chisel, screwdriver blade, flint blade, guillotine, sharpener, hone, strop, grindstone, whetstone, novaculite, steel, emery, sharp, keen, acute, acicular, aciform, aculeated, acuminated, pointed, tapering, conical, pyramidal, mucronate, mucronated, spindle shaped, needle shaped, spiked, spiky, ensiform, peaked, salient, cusped, cuspidate, cuspidated, cornute, cornuted, cornicultate, prickly, spiny, spinous, spicular, thorny, bristling, muricated, pectinated, studded, thistly, briary, craggy, snaggy, digitated, two-edged, fusiform, dentiform, denticulated, toothed, odontoid, starlike, stellated, stelliform, sagittate, sagittiform, arrowheaded, arrowy, barbed, spurred, acinaciform, apiculate, apiculated, aristate, awned, awny, bearded, calamiform, cone-shaped, coniform, crestate, echinate, gladiate, lanceolate, lanciform, awl, awl-shaped, lance-shaped, awl- shaped, scimitar-shaped, sword-shaped, setarious, spinuliferous, subulate, tetrahedral, xiphoid, cutting, sharp edged, knife edged, sharp as a razor, keen as a razor, sharp as a needle, sharp as a tack, sharpened, set.