shanty

noun

1. A roughly-built hut or cabin.

   “A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well.”

   “He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused or abandoned.”

   “1965 January, Stuart James, Angling′s New Gadgets, Popular Mechanics, page 224, The ice fishing shanty is not a necessity, but it does add to the comfort. A shanty can be any size or shape, four pieces of plywood banged together with a plywood roof, or as elaborate as one I was told about by a Minneapolis fisherman that has four rooms with gas heat and wall-to-wall carpeting.”

   “1999 January, Lawrence Pyne, In Vermont: Rental Shanties Give Hassle-Free Ice-Fishing, Field & Stream, page 78, The solution is to use ice-fishing shacks, called shanties on Champlain. Every winter, veritable shanty towns spring up as safe ice develops, and their snug occupants harvest fresh meals of perch, pike, walleye, salmon, trout, and smelt without first being flash-frozen themselves.”

   “Shanties are the most interesting and original of early housing in the Adirondacks.[…]Bark for roofs and even walls on occasion seems to be an attribute of the shanty. Large shanties at staging grounds in the woods included bunkhouses holding one to three dozen men, so not all shanties were small.”

2. A rudimentary or improvised dwelling, especially one not legally owned.

   “Shanties along canal banks and road reserves have emerged since independence in 1948 onwards, and consist of unauthorized and improvised shelter without legal rights of occupancy of the land and structures.”

   “A few governments recognise the shanties as a form of self-help housing that places very little burden upon government funds. Such governments sometimes encourage shanty development by providing water, electricity and garbage collection services.”

   “In the hard times of the 1930s, shanty boats along the Ohio River′s banks were home to many families, who felt fortunate to have a roof over their heads even if it was not on dry land.”

3. (Australia, New-Zealand)An unlicensed pub.

   “The shanty-keeper is not, as a rule, a bachelor.”

4. A rhythmic work song, traditionally sung by sailors or stevedores, functioning to set the pace for hauling, turning a capstan, loading, or other such activities.

   “A Scot called Macmillan, a man holding a master's square-rig ticket, gave me a portion of a shanty related in tune to the foregoing, and also to the British Rolling Home.”

   “Today, shanties are a special feature of the folk music movement. The first International Shanty Festival, Shanty ′87, was held in 1987 in Krakow, Poland, with Stan Hugill, the “godfather of the shanty,” in attendance (see Folk Roots, September 1987, No. 51, “Hugill-Mania! Stan Hugill Godfather of the Shanty Mafia, Goes to Poland,” p.33ff.).”

adj

1. (US, derogatory, not-comparable)Living in shanties; poor, ill-mannered and violent.

   “That neighborhood is full of shanty Irishmen.”

2. Jaunty; showy.

verb

1. To inhabit a shanty.

   “we came down the Alleghany in two canoes , and shantied on the Ohio”