Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Jaunty; gay; showy.
  • noun A hut or mean dwelling; a temporary building of rough and flimsy character, Compare boist.
  • noun A public house, or place where liquor is sold.
  • To live in a shanty, as lumbermen do: common in Manitoba and the lumber regions of North America.
  • noun A song with a boisterous chorus, sung by sailors while heaving at the capstan or windlass or hoisting up heavy weights, to enable them to pull or heave together in time with the song.
  • To visit the grog-shanty habitually; drink frequently or habitually at a public-house.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small, mean dwelling; a rough, slight building for temporary use; a hut.
  • adjective Prov. Eng. Jaunty; showy.
  • intransitive verb To inhabit a shanty.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A sailor′s work song.
  • noun A roughly-built hut or cabin.
  • noun A rudimentary or improvised dwelling, especially one not legally owned.
  • noun Australia, New Zealand An unlicenced pub.
  • adjective US, pejorative Living in shanties; poor, ill-mannered and violent.
  • verb To inhabit a shanty.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a rhythmical work song originally sung by sailors
  • noun small crude shelter used as a dwelling

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French chantez, imperative of chanter ("to sing").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French chantier.

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Examples

  • He crossed the open glade, was, nearly at the shanty, when he heard voices -- loud, coarse voices -- _coming from his shanty_.

    Two Little Savages Being the adventures of two boys who lived as Indians and what they learned Ernest Thompson Seton 1903

  • Father would disapprove of his daughter settling for what he called a shanty Irish beau.

    Sea Escape Lynne Griffin 2010

  • Father would disapprove of his daughter settling for what he called a shanty Irish beau.

    Sea Escape Lynne Griffin 2010

  • WAGNER: He became a different -- he was one of those what they refer to as shanty Irish.

    CNN Transcript Aug 3, 2002 2002

  • WAGNER: He became a different -- he was one of those what they refer to as shanty Irish.

    CNN Transcript Jul 16, 2002 2002

  • Had Ron Davies become First Secretary we would now be living in shanty towns, stuck at home watching re-runs of Satellite City and evenings with Max Boyce on our black and white TV sets.

    Archive 2009-09-01 2009

  • Our ongoing collaboration provides pediatric primary care to marginalized Haitian immigrant children living in shanty town-like villages (bateyes) where their parents work on sugar cane plantations.

    Activities 2010

  • Had Ron Davies become First Secretary we would now be living in shanty towns, stuck at home watching re-runs of Satellite City and evenings with Max Boyce on our black and white TV sets.

    The Saviour speaketh 2009

  • The people were living in shanty towns and the government had to ship water to the residents.

    Thoughts: Garbage Warrior....Sustainable Housing Code Monkey 2008

  • The people were living in shanty towns and the government had to ship water to the residents.

    Archive 2008-04-01 Code Monkey 2008

Comments

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  • We set to sail on a packet full of spice, rum, and tea-leaves.

    We've emptied out all the bars and the Bowery Hotel.

    Tell your daughters do not walk the streets alone tonight

    September 18, 2007

  • Also a shelter hauled out onto a frozen lake and left there during the ice fishing season...some of them are anything but crude. Some have fully stocked bars, television, beds, easy chairs. The fishermen fish through the ice via holes in the floor. My father has a collapsible portable one that he hauls back and forth with his snowmobile each time he goes fishing. He is of the fishing school of ice fishermen as opposed to the drinking and partying school of ice fishermen.

    February 29, 2008

  • sailors singing shanties and living a hearty and rough life at sea

    November 20, 2010