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# hackles

«hackles» in Mova's school dictionary: **The hairs or feathers along the back of the neck of a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun, plural (hackles)

### meaning for a pupil

1) The hairs or feathers along the back of the neck of a dog, cat or bird that stand up when it is angry or frightened. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hackles/#m1)

2) To raise someone's hackles (or make their hackles rise) means to make them angry. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hackles/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In nature lessons about animal body language; in stories and everyday talk about people getting annoyed. Phrases: raise someone's hackles, her hackles rose, put someone's hackles up.

### examples

- The dog's hackles rose when it saw the fox. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hackles/#x1)
- Rude comments really raise my hackles. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hackles/#x2)
- The cat arched its back and its hackles stood up. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hackles/#x3)
- His bossy tone put my hackles up. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hackles/#x4)
- A cockerel's hackles are long shiny neck feathers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hackles/#x5)
- Her hackles rose when someone called her a cheat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hackles/#x6)

### note

Almost always plural: hackles. Used as an idiom about people: the hairs do not really rise. Related: get your back up.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «hackles» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hackles/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.