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Glite Dictionary
to shack up

to shack up

33 8.2
To live together as a couple without being married
  • phrasal verb
  • /ʃæk ʌp/
  • NSFW
: vivir juntos
  • Yes, well, Cate is shacked up with Brody at the Sheraton right now so you need to move on.
  • shack up with a guy
  • shack up with a woman
  • shack up together

Now when we say they should make laws for the people who shack up, he told me shacking up cannot be object of law because it is a crime.

Examples

  • We all know you've been shacking up together.

    The Kremlin Letter (1970)

  • Tell her we're shacking up together.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • And you think that he just shacked up with her.

    Hostel: Part III (2011)

  • You gonna shack up here?

    A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

  • "Is this the same guy she was shackin' up with two years ago?"

    Fiction book (2001)

  • She ended up shacking up with him.

    Get the Gringo (2012)

  • I can't be shacked up with that woman.

    Bad Boys (1995)

  • He's shacking up with a woman down City Island.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Daddy cheats on Mommy and leaves to shack up with the other woman.

    Blog text (3)

  • They decided to shack up together after dating for a year.

Synonyms

to live together
vsto shack up
  • NSFW
230 2.7

To share a home with a romantic partner without being married

is more informal and implies a casual domestic arrangement
to live in sin
vsto shack up
  • NSFW
8 8.4

A couple who live together and have sex without being married, often seen as wrong by some people

is used more neutrally and lacks moral judgement
to cohabitate
vsto shack up
4 4.8

To live together in the same home as a couple who are not married

is more informal and often suggests a casual or sexual relationship
to cohabit
vsto shack up
  • NSFW
3 6.3

To live together as a couple and have sex without being married

is more informal and often refers to an easygoing relationship

Antonyms

to marry
∞ 1.0

To become someone's husband or wife in a ceremony

How Committed

to marry
∞ 1.0
to live together
  • NSFW
230 2.7
to shack up
  • NSFW
33 8.2
to date
∞ 1.3

Surface Forms

shack up infinitive
shacked up past
shacked up past participle
shacking up present participle
shacks up third person singular

Morphology

shack + up

There is a visible link between 'shack' (a small dwelling) and the phrasal particle 'up' that can suggest residing together, so a learner who knows the words might infer a sense of living together. However, the specific idiomatic sense — cohabiting as a couple, often informally or sexually and outside marriage — is a culturally marked, colloquial extension that is not fully predictable from the parts, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Shack up may come from the word shack, which means a small, rough house; the image of two people sharing a shack makes it easy to see why shack up came to mean 'to live together as a couple' often when they are 'not married'.