different between hackle vs huckle

English

Etymology

From Middle English hakle (compare the compound meshakele), from Old English hæcla, hacele, from Proto-Germanic *hakul?, equivalent to hack +? -le. Cognate with Dutch hekel, German Hechel.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?hæk?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?hæk?l/
• Rhymes: -æk?l

Noun

hackle (plural hackles)

1. An instrument with steel pins used to comb out flax or hemp. [from 15th c.]

   Synonyms: heckle, hatchel

2. (usually now in the plural) One of the long, narrow feathers on the neck of birds, most noticeable on the rooster. [from 15th c.]
3. (fishing) A feather used to make a fishing lure or a fishing lure incorporating a feather. [from 17th c.]
4. (usually now in the plural) By 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. [from 19th c.]
5. A type of jagged crack extending inwards from the broken surface of a fractured material.
6. A plate with rows of pointed needles used to blend or straighten hair. [from 20th c.]
7. A feather plume on some soldier's uniforms, especially the hat or helmet.

   Synonyms: panache, plume

8. Any flimsy substance unspun, such as raw silk.

Usage notes

In everyday speech, primarily used in phrase to raise someone's hackles (“to make one angry”), as in “It raises my hackles when you take that condescending tone.”.

Translations

Verb

hackle (third-person singular simple present hackles, present participle hackling, simple past and past participle hackled)

1. To dress (flax or hemp) with a hackle; to prepare fibres of flax or hemp for spinning. [from 17th c.]
   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 155:

     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.

2. (transitive) To separate, as the coarse part of flax or hemp from the fine, by drawing it through the teeth of a hackle or hatchel.
3. (archaic, transitive) To tear asunder; to break into pieces.
   • 1790, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France

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

Translations

Further reading

• hackle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• hackle (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Hackel

English

Etymology

From huck (from Middle English hoke (“hook”), hokebone, probably so called because of its round shape) + -le. See also hook.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?k?l/
• Rhymes: -?k?l

Noun

huckle (plural huckles)

1. (obsolete) The hip, the haunch.
   • 1676, A Way to Get Wealth, Book I, page 5

     […] which approves a quick gathering up of his legs withoute pain, his huckle bones round and hidden, […]

   • 1687, The History of the Most Renowned Don Quixote of Mancha and His Trusty Squire (translated by JP), Book II, page 433:

     At what time Don Quixote, who had very much bruis'd his Huckle-bone, with a Hipshot grace approaching the Lady fell upon his Knees […]
2. A bunch or part projecting like the hip.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nicholas Udall to this entry?)

3. (Tyneside, derogatory) A homosexual man.
   • 2002, "Bridge Over Troubled Waters", Auf Wiedersehen, Pet

     He’s not! He can’t be! There's never been a huckle in the Osbourne family, and we can trace our lineage all the way back to the Second World War.