hackle (hackle)

noun

• 1 (hackles) erectile hairs along an animal’s back, which rise when it is angry or alarmed: the dog continued to growl, its hackles raised

• 2a long, narrow feather on the neck or saddle of a domestic cock or other bird.
• Fishing a feather wound around a fishing fly so that its filaments are splayed out.
• [mass noun] fly-fishing feathers collectively: raising birds for hackle
• a bunch of feathers in a military headdress, for example of a regiment of fusiliers or the Black Watch.

• 3a steel comb for dressing flax.

verb

• dress or comb (flax) with a hackle: taking each section separately the student should lightly hackle the extreme ends