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tinerant beggar; a vagabond; a tramp. [Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U.S.] Forby. All the poor old shacks about the town found a friend in Deacon Marble. H. W. Beecher. Common of shack (Eng.Law), the right of persons occupying lands lying together in the same common field to turn out their cattle to range in it after harvest. C…

A hound. [Obs.]

ion; specifically, a ring or band inclosing the ankle or wrist, and fastened to a similar shackle on the other leg or arm, or to something else, by a chain or a strap; a gyve; a fetter. His shackles empty left; himself escaped clean. Spenser.

A sort of shackle. [Obs.]

Shaky; rickety. [Colloq. U. S.]

To fasten (an animal) by a rope binding the head to one of the fore legs; as, to hamshackle a horse or cow; hence, to bind or restrain; to curb.

inted; falling to pieces; out of repair. There came . . . my lord the cardinal, in his ramshackle coach. Thackeray.

To loose from shackles or bonds; to set free from restraint; to unfetter. Addison.

emulated their chief in the richness of their appointments. Prescott. I'll prove it in my shackles, with these hands Void of appoinment, that thou liest. Beau. & Fl.

A long bar or bolt of iron with sliding shackles, and a lock at the end, to confine the feet of prisoners or offenders, esp. on board of ships. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Shak.

An iron to fasten the legs of a prisoner; a shackle; a fetter. [Obs.] Away with him to prison! lay bolts enough upon him. Shak.

or by which anything is fastened or bound, as a cord, chain, etc.; a band; a ligament; a shackle or a manacle. Gnawing with my teeth my bonds in sunder, I gained my freedom. Shak.

Affecting like a canker. "Canrerous shackles." Thomson. Misdeem it not a cankerous change. Wordsworth.

A floating perforated box for living fish. [U. S.] Car coupling, or Car coupler, a shackle or other device for connecting the cars in a railway train. [U. S.] -- Dummy car (Railroad), a car containing its own steam power or locomotive. -- Freight car (Railrood), a car for the transportation of merchandise or other goo…

links of a chain. When perfect, the calicles show twelve septa. -- Chain coupling. (a) A shackle for uniting lengths of chain, or connecting a chain with an object. (b) (Railroad) Supplementary coupling together of cars with a chain. -- Chain gang, a gang of convicts chained together. -- Chain hook (Naut.), a hook,…

One who couples; that which couples, as a link, ring, or shackle, to connect cars. Coupler of an organ, a contrivance by which any two or more of the ranks of keys, or keys and pedals, are connected so as to act together when the organ is played.

, room, house, etc.; as, an empty chest, room, purse, or pitcher; an empty stomach; empty shackles.

A chain or shackle for the feet; a chain by which an animal is confined by the foot, either made fast or disabled from free and rapid motion; a bond; a shackle. [They] bound him with fetters of brass. Judg. xvi. 21.

A shackle; especially, one to confine the legs; a fetter. [Written also give.] Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves. Shak. With gyves upon his wrist. Hood.

To put a hamper or fetter on; to shackle; to insnare; to inveigle; hence, to impede in motion or progress; to embarrass; to encumber. "Hampered nerves." Blackmore. A lion hampered in a net. L'Estrange. They hamper and entangle our souls. Tillotson.