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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Shack

Shăck, n.

noun

Shăck, n. [Prov. Eng. shack, to shake, to shed, the grain left after gleaning, Scot. shag, refuse of barley, oats. See SHAKE.] 1. Liberty of winter pasturage. In Norfolk and Suffolk, the lord of a manor has shack, that is, liberty of feeding his sheep at pleasure on his tenant's lands during the six winter months. In Norfolk, shack extends to the common for hogs, in all men's grounds, from harvest to seed-time; whence to go a-shack is to feed at large. Cowell.

  1. The grain left after harvest or gleaning; fallen mast or acorns.
  2. A shiftless fellow; a low, itinerant beggar; a vagabond. Forby.

Shack, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. [See supra.] 1. To shed, or fall, as corn at harvest. [Prov. Eng.] Grose. 2. To feed in stubble, or upon the waste corn of the field. [Prov. Eng.] Pegge.