hackle🔊

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

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

(fishing) A feather used to make a fishing lure or a fishing lure incorporating a feather.

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.

A type of jagged crack extending inwards from the broken surface of a fractured material.

A plate with rows of pointed needles used to blend or straighten hair.

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

Any flimsy substance unspun, such as raw silk.

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

To separate, as the coarse part of flax or hemp from the fine, by drawing it through the teeth of a hackle or hatchel.

(archaic) To tear asunder; to break into pieces.