hackle

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)An instrument with steel pins used to comb out flax or hemp.
2. (countable, in-plural, uncountable, usually)One of the long, narrow feathers on the neck of birds, most noticeable on the rooster.
3. (countable, uncountable)A feather used to make a fishing lure or a fishing lure incorporating a feather.
4. (countable, in-plural, uncountable, usually)By extension (because the hackles of a rooster are lifted when it is angry), the hair on the nape of the neck in dogs and other animals; also used figuratively for humans.

   “When the dog got angry, his hackles rose and he growled.”

   “Suppose it happened to be the case that the majority of individuals raised their hackles only when they were truly intending to go on for a very long time in the war of attrition. The obvious counterploy would evolve: individuals would give up immediately when an opponent raised his hackles.”

5. (countable, uncountable)A type of jagged crack extending inwards from the broken surface of a fractured material.
6. (countable, uncountable)A plate with rows of pointed needles used to blend or straighten hair.
7. (countable, uncountable)A feather plume on some soldier's uniforms, especially the hat or helmet.
8. (countable, uncountable)Any flimsy substance unspun, such as raw silk.
9. (slang, uncountable)Pluck; courage or energy.

   “"COME ALONG YE GRASS-COMBERS, SHOW some hackle," David Ingram, striding ahead, turned back and called.”

verb

1. To dress (flax or hemp) with a hackle; to prepare fibres of flax or hemp for spinning.

   “Then, with a smile that seemed to have all the freshness of the matutinal hour in it, she bent again to her work of hackling flax.”

2. (transitive)To separate, as the coarse part of flax or hemp from the fine, by drawing it through the teeth of a hackle or hatchel.
3. (archaic, transitive)To tear asunder; to break into pieces.

   “the other divisions of the kingdom being hackled and torn to pieces”