hackle

hacklenoun/ˈhækəl/

• 1

  An instrument with steel pins used to comb out flax or hemp.

• 2

  One of the long, narrow feathers on the neck of birds, most noticeable on the rooster.

• 3

  fishinghobbieslifestyleA feather used to make a fishing lure or a fishing lure incorporating a feather.

• 4

  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.

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

• 7

  A feather plume on some soldier's uniforms, especially the hat or helmet.

• 8

  Any flimsy substance unspun, such as raw silk.

hackleverb/ˈhækəl/

• 1

  To dress (flax or hemp) with a hackle; to prepare fibres of flax or hemp for spinning.

  • 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

  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

  archaicTo tear asunder; to break into pieces.

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