shack up
Britishverb
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Sleep together or live in sexual intimacy without being married. For example, They had been dating for two months and then decided to shack up . [ Slang ; first half of 1900s]
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Stay or reside with, as in I'm shacking up with my cousin till I find a place of my own . [ Slang ; first half of 1900s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This takes a bizarrely conventional turn in his courtship of Elsa, whom he doesn’t merely shack up with but marries.
From New York Times • Mar. 15, 2023
I hadn’t been downtown too long, so I figured I’d shack up with him for a minute.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 22, 2018
In 1968, Yarnall starred opposite Presley in “Live a Little, Love a Little” as Ellen, who memorably insists she can’t shack up with the star’s character because he’s a Sagittarius.
From Fox News • Oct. 10, 2018
The Sofie forces tempura shrimp to shack up with warring parties: avocado slices and Sriracha mayo, the ying and yang of creaminess.
From Washington Post • Mar. 24, 2016
He could haunt Montana or shack up in the mountains of Southern California.
From "Landscape with Invisible Hand" by M.T. Anderson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
