Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to live with a sexual partner.

1934		Z.N. Hurston Jonah’s Gourd Vine (1995) 73: She was shacked up with somebody in a tie-camp on the Alabama River.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 290: In six mont’s you’ll be shackin’ up again.
1956		I. Fleming Diamonds Are Forever (1958) 99: Probably shacks up with Wint. Some of these homos make the worst killers.
1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] Pinchy was shacked with a working broad who didn’t like any of the coolsters around.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 184: Run to ground on the borders of Scotland shacked up in a country pub.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 120: I don’t see how Ann can put up with him. It’s about like shacking up with someone who’s got sleeping sickness.
1970		Galton & Simpson ‘Cuckoo in the Nest’ Steptoe and Son [TV script] She shacked up with some Eyetie plonk grower when I was seven.
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 47: ‘He wants to gimme everything [...] He wants me to shack up with him’.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 91: Susan, a hard line San Francisco leftist eight years my senior, who I shacked up with.
1992		D. Jarman letter 2 Feb. Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 75: He shacked up with a New York model girl and that was the last I heard.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 77: Dad wasn’t there any more. Mum shacked up with someone new.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] You think you can shack up with a swaggie out there and nobody knows? You can let your arsefucker punch out innocent citizens and you look the other way?
2008		J. Lansdale Leather Maiden 81: ‘You could stay, shack up for a few days [...] She’ll turn you every way but loose’.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 270: I never shacked up with any project broads.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Christ’s sake, you’re shacked up with a serving member of the state police.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 291: She’ll be shacked up wi somebody else now!
2019		S.M. Jones Lives Laid Away [ebook] ‘We don’t have to — you know — shack up’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 13: Liz Taylor’s shacked with Richard Burton.

2. to have sex with someone.

1946		T. Heggen Mister Roberts 150: Booksie, were you shacked up with her?
1951		M. Spillane Long Wait (1954) 149: The usual thing, a dame and a small-town playboy shacked up in a hotel room with a blackmail aftermath.
1964		L. Hansberry Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window in Three Negro Plays (1969) I ii: Shacking up with any poor sick bastard in the world with a hundred bucks.
1969		M. Puzo Godfather 97: ‘Maybe he’s shacked up.’ ‘No,’ Hagen said. ‘He never sleeps over with a broad.’.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 76: Mikey-Mike, shacked up all day, hundred and a half.
1977		(con. 1960s) D. Goines Black Gangster (1991) 229: The sonofabitch was in his room shacking up with some bitch.
1981		W. Russell Educating Rita Iv: I said to him, y’ soft get, even if I was havin’ an affair there’s no point burnin’ me books. I’m not havin’ it off with Anton Chekhov. He said, ‘I wouldn’t put it past you to shack up with a foreigner.’.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 130: We all shack up with one each.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 52: Watches his wife shack up with an asshole.

3. to pick up, for sexual purposes.

1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 195: Don’t be discouraged, George. We’ll shack up with a couple of dolls.
1957		‘Ed Lacy’ Lead With Your Left (1958) 6: This is you and me talking in bed, not a couple of strangers shacking up for the night.

4. to live or reside, usu. temporarily.

1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 462: Shack up, To put up for the night.
1945		T. Thursday ‘You Gotta Have Luck’ in Popular Sports Jan. 🌐 The Nitro Kid had warned him against shacking up in cheap flop houses.
1959		C. MacInnes Absolute Beginners 48: A drab and shady [...] part called Bayswater, which I would rather lie in my coffin [...] than spend a night in, were it not for Suze, who’s shacked up there.
1963		G. Lambert Inside Daisy Clover (1966) 53: Maybe The Dealer and I could shack up there.
1977		B. Davidson Collura (1978) 109: At night, he’d shack up in an abandoned building with some equally hapless female addict.
1987		M. Melamu Children of Twilight 99: Babsy had to shack up with me for the night.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] If the girl wasn’t shacked up with her boyfriend [etc].
1995		R. Campbell Wizard of La-La Land (1999) 201: He’s shacked up with a woman not his wife or girlfriend.
2011		F. Bill ‘Rough Company’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] Watched him [...] shack up in a flophouse at night [ibid.] Connie and her son [...] shacked up at an address two hours away.
2023		R. Milward Man-Eating Typewriter 35: She was sick of being shacked up with just the one pissoir between eight families.