Definition of "hackle" [hac•kle]

• Any of the long, slender, often glossy feathers on the neck of a bird, especially a male domestic fowl. (noun)
• The erectile hairs along the back of the neck of an animal, especially of a dog. (noun)
• A tuft of cock feathers trimming an artificial fishing fly. (noun)
• A hackle fly. (noun)
• To trim (an artificial fishing fly) with a hackle. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Making a generalized statement, the soft hackle is the most effective fly I have ever used in rivers for trout."
• "The hen hackle is not tied on but attached to the collar by a shrink process."
• "After the bark had become loosened, it was taken to a "break" which broke up the stems so that the bark, or fiber could be easily separated from the broken stems by drawing it repeatedly through the "hackle" -- a board with a great number of sharp spikes driven through it."