Meaning & use
hackles
Last updated
The erectile hairs along an animal's neck and back that rise when it is angry or alarmed, or, figuratively, a person's temper or defensiveness.
See it in a sentence
The dog's hackles rose as a stranger approached the yard.
His blunt comment raised her hackles immediately.
A note on using this word
Almost always used in the plural, hackles gave rise to the common idiom 'raise someone's hackles,' meaning to provoke anger.
Words with a similar meaning
furbristles
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