Green’s Dictionary of Slang

shack v.

[shack n.1 ]
(US)

1. (also shack out) to idle, to loaf.

[US]Good Words Feb. 125: What makes the work come so heavy at the end of the week, is, that the men are shacking at the beginning [F&H].
E.P. Oppenheim False Evidence xxvi n.p.: What would you have me do? Shack about with my hands in my pockets all day? [F&H].
[US]Wash. Herald (DC) 17 Mar. 2/2: ‘Come on, fellows, brace up [...] remember now, no “shacking”’.
[US]Hope College ‘Dict. of New Terms’ 🌐 shack out v. intr. To rest and relax; to ‘hang one’s hat.’.

2. (also shuck out, shack up) to live alone, to live as a bachelor or single woman.

[US]DN I 393: Shack. (v.) to live in a shack or keep a bachelor’s hall in general. ‘They sent away their wives and shacked for a time.’.
[US]Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 94: You ain’t de Everglades Cypress Lumber Comp’ny sho nuff. Youse just shacking in one of their shanties.
[US]W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 203: He asked me to [...] stay with him in his new three-dollar room, but I told him ‘no,’ that I wanted to shuck out on my own.
[US]F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 287: Yuh didn’t tell ’em I’m shackin’ on the roof?
[Aus]J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 101: [He] shacked up in a stark little basement flat.
[UK]J. Cameron It Was An Accident 13: You shacked here now Noreen?
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 504: Donkey Dom’s shacked at the Cavern.

3. (also shack around, shack out) to have sexual intercourse; also as n.; also transitive use constr. with with.

[US] in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 49: There was a young blade from South Greece / Whose bush did so greatly increase / That before he could shack / He must hunt needle in stack.
L. Walker Show Me the Way 191: She wanted me to shack with her tonight.
[US]I. Shulman Cry Tough! 172: The other women he shacked around with were dampers for his heat.
[US]F. Paley Rumble on the Docks (1955) 184: You shackin’ with Clara?
[US]G. Swarthout Where the Boys Are 179: Dilworth [...] had taken her to a motel for some shack and got her drunk; enter the other two, who tried to make a kind of obscene round-robin out of it.
[UK]T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 134: Miss Roach certainly looked as if she’d been shacking all night with me.
[US] in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 345: See that girl over there in slacks. / She shacks.
[US]Baker et al. CUSS 191: Shack out Have sexual intercourse.
[US]S. King Stand (1990) 1016: Who could Harold be shackin with?
[UK](con. 1950s) D. Nobbs Second from Last in the Sack Race 217: Far too many boys. Have to shack a few, I think.
[US]J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 13: They met, they sizzled, they shacked [...] Jean #2 got pregnant.

4. to live with a partner; usu. transitive use constr. with with.

[US](con. 1943–5) A. Murphy To Hell and Back (1950) 136: ‘Who the hell is she?’ ‘Some broad I used to shack with in Boston.’.
[US]H. Simmons Corner Boy 109: It ain’t because you’re shacking — living with Scar got nothing to do with it.
[US]D. Burley N.Y. Amsterdam News 27 Apr. 13: ‘Penguin’ marriages of course have been the way the ball bounces throughout U.S. history.
[US]J. Blake letter 2 Aug. in Joint (1972) 213: I says, you didn’t tell me you were shacking with a wily Japanese after Pearl Harbor and all.
[US]O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 195: From the looks of things, we’ll probably be shacking before the end of the month is out.
[US]C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 195: Some of you that has been shackin’, you can just go packin’.
[US]N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 370: Where you been, man, shackin’ with some babe?
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 242: ‘Natalie Wood?’ ‘Lez. Currently shacked with a WAC major named Biff.’.
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 95: ‘Joi’s shacking with Stece Cochran’.

5. in weak use of sense 4, to become involved with, e.g. an idea.

[UK]K. Richards Life 345: I thought I was shacking up with this really weird, unknown sect.

6. (US Und.) to rob a house or apartment when the owner is having dinner in another room; thus shacker, a ‘dinner burglar’; shacking touch, the loot gained from such a burglary or the burglary itself.

[US]Goldin et al. DAUL 189/2: Shack, v. To operate as a dinner burglar. [...] Shacker. A burglar who robs the homes of the well-to-do during dinner hours. [...] Shacking touch. A house burglary during dinner hours; the loot taken in such a robbery.

7. to stay the night at someone’s house, whether sexually or not; occas. transitive use constr. with with.

[US]P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 200: I’m going to shack with Dot and Jim.
[US]Current Sl. IV:1 14: Shack, v. To stay out all night with a boy or girl.
[US]J. Doyle College Sl. Dict. 🌐 shack to stay at the apartment/dorm/frat/sorority of your significant or not so significant other overnight.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Sept.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Fall 9: SHACK – stay at someone of the opposite sex’s house; to sleep somewhere other than home.

In compounds

shack job (n.)

1. the person with whom one lives; the state of non-marital cohabitation.

[US]J.W. Bishop ‘Amer. Army Speech’ in AS XXI:4 Dec. 252: Shack up (with). To cohabit. Also used in the passive. ‘I’m shacked up around here’ means that the speaker has found a friendly fräulein who in substance maintains a home for him. The fräulein herself is a ‘shack job.’.
[US]Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
Courier-Post (Camden, NJ) 26 Dec. 87/5: You ask what you should call the man you are sleeping with. I suggest [...] your boyfriend. If he objects, try bedmate, shack job or hired stud.
[US]J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 17: Shack jobs were forbidden for LAPD men.

2. a couple or the state of being a couple.

[US]J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 99: We’re shacked up now [...] The only thing different from all the other shackjobs is that you’re livin with your folks.

3. (also shack, shack baby) a casual sex partner; also attrib.

[US]‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Shack: Soldier’s sweetheart.
[US](con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 94: He’d [...] let loose on us a string of obscenities. He said that these phrases excited a shackjob more than loving words.
[US]J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 78: A lot of guys went around bragging about a shackjob here and a shackjob there. Very few of them were ever lucky enough to have one.
[US]S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 60: You got a shack job with you?
[US]C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 93: I had the rep as [...] shack-job specialist.
[US](con. late 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 626: Unlike most of the other men, he did not keep a German shack-baby. Instead, he went down on ‘Goodmanstrasse’ and got a whore when he needed sex.
Minneapolis Star (MN) 31 July 33/3: ‘I feel [...] they are all married and looking for a shack job’.
[US](con. 1964–8) J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand 510: Dom drove to their tryst. Dom always drove to his shack jobs.
shack man (n.) (also shack rat) [SE man/rat n.1 (1a)] (US)

1. a married man.

[US]Abilene Reporter-News (TX) 2 Dec. 8/7: A shack man is a married soldier.
[US]‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Shack Man: Married soldier.

2. an adulterous man or woman.

[US]D.W. Hamilton ‘Pacific War Lang.’ in AS XXII:1 Feb. 56: shack rat. A soldier who ‘shacks up’ with a girl.
Great falls Trib. (MT) 21 Aug. 14/1: Her soldier husband called her a ‘shack rat’ and more objectional names.
Asheville Citizen-Times (NC) 15 June 30/7: [advert] The original GI Bill of Delights [...] Sad Sacks, Sack Rats, Shack Rats.