different between hackle vs rackle

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??æ.k?l/

Etymology 1

From Middle English rakyl (“chain”), apparently related to Old Frisian rakels (“chain”), French racle ("the iron ring of a door") (from a Germanic source), and also Middle English rakente, from Old English racente (“chain, fetter”). More at rackan.

Alternative forms

• rakkill (Scotland)

Noun

rackle (countable and uncountable, plural rackles)

1. (countable, Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) A chain.
2. (uncountable, Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Noisy talk.

Verb

rackle (third-person singular simple present rackles, present participle rackling, simple past and past participle rackled)

1. (Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) To talk noisily; rattle on.

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain. Probably from rack (“to drive; move; go forward rapidly”), alteration of Middle English reken (“to drive; move; tend”), from Old Norse reka, vreka (“to drive; drift; toss”) +? -le (“tending or prone to”). Related to Icelandic reka, Swedish vräka, Danish vrage, English wrack.

Adjective

rackle (comparative more rackle, superlative most rackle)

1. Of a person: rash, impetuous, reckless
2. Rough, crude
3. Sturdy in old age

Anagrams

• Clarke, calker, lacker, recalk