- the hairs on the back of the neck of a dog, cat, etc. that rise when the animal is afraid or angryTopics Animalsc2Word Originlate Middle English (in sense (2)): variant of hatchel.
Idioms
See hackles in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarysomebody’s hackles rise
- to become angry
- Ben felt his hackles rise as the speaker continued.
make somebody’s hackles rise | raise somebody’s hackles
- to make somebody angry
- Her controversial article is bound to raise hackles.
Check pronunciation:
hackles