Etymology Unknown. Some scholars derive this word from Mexican Spanish jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli (“adobe hut”). Alternatively, the word may instead come from ramshackle/ramshackly (e.g., old ramshackly house) or perhaps it may be a back-formation from shackly. Compare Tavringer Romani hak (“place, house”), Traveller Norwegian hak (“place”).
1
A crude, roughly built hut or cabin.
The men resided in a huge bunk house, which consisted of one room only, with a shack outside where the cooking was done. In the large room were a dozen bunks ; half of them in a very dishevelled state, […]1913, Robert Barr, chapter 6, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
2
Any poorly constructed or poorly furnished building.
The stations are generally very poor, even for a branch line; some are mere wooden shacks, and Moniaive itself is one of the least prepossessing terminal stations I have ever seen.1944 January and February, E. R. McCarter, “The Cairn Valley Light Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 48:
3
Slang The room from which a ham radio operator transmits.
Etymology Unknown. Some scholars derive this word from Mexican Spanish jacal, from Nahuatl xacalli (“adobe hut”). Alternatively, the word may instead come from ramshackle/ramshackly (e.g., old ramshackly house) or perhaps it may be a back-formation from shackly. Compare Tavringer Romani hak (“place, house”), Traveller Norwegian hak (“place”).
1
To live (in or with); to shack up.
shack
noun
Etymology Obsolete variant of shake. Compare Scots shag (“refuse of barley or oats”).
1
Obsolete Grain fallen to the ground and left after harvest.
Obsolete Freedom to pasturage in order to feed upon shack.
[…] first comes the case of tenants with a customary right to shack their sheep and cattle who have overburdened the fields with a larger number of beasts than their tenement entitles them to, or who have allowed their beasts to feed in the field out of shack time.1918, Christobel Mary Hoare Hood, The History of an East Anglian Soke http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=OCLC11859773&id=rI0iE-yqyAMC&q=%22right+to+shack%22&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Flr%3D%26q%3D%2522right%2Bto%2Bshack%2522&pgis=1
1996, J M Neeson, Commoners http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0521567742&id=2CqhjjiwLtEC&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&sig=3geUREguU3vTYj_05PtAfzFODDA The fields were enclosed by Act in 1791, and Tharp gave the cottagers about thirteen acres for their right of shack.
4
UK, US, Dialectal, Obsolete A shiftless fellow; a low, itinerant beggar; a vagabond; a tramp.
Some peple hev a fakilty two get along into the world, whilst others air poor shacks & good for nothing.1866, Betsey Jane Ward, Book of Goaks:
All the poor old shacks about the town found a friend in Deacon Marble.1868, Henry Ward Beecher, Norwood, or Village Life in New England:
5
Fishing, Hobbies, Lifestyle Bait that can be picked up at sea.
6
Nigeria, Slang A drink, especially an alcoholic one.
They [turkeys] are then sold‥to the larger farmers to ‘shack’ upon the barley or oat stubbles.1867, “Journal of the Royal Agriculatural Socirty”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
[…] first comes the case of tenants with a customary right to shack their sheep and cattle who have overburdened the fields with a larger number of beasts than their tenement entitles them to, or who have allowed their beasts to feed in the field out of shack time.1918, Christobel Mary Hoare Hood, The History of an East Anglian Soke http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=OCLC11859773&id=rI0iE-yqyAMC&q=%22right+to+shack%22&prev=http://books.google.com/books%3Flr%3D%26q%3D%2522right%2Bto%2Bshack%2522&pgis=1