mackle
mackle is the obsolete form of macule.
Meaning of macule
Noun
macule (plural macules)
- A spot.
- A blur or an appearance of a double impression, as when the paper slips a little during printing.
Verb (1)
mackle (third-person singular simple present mackles, present participle mackling, simple past and past participle mackled)
- To assemble in a makeshift manner; to cobble together.
- It's dry and warm and if Jacob and I were to put our heads together I'm sure we could find something in the tack-room, some harness, or a nose band or two that could be mackled together to make a carrying contraption.1998, Audrey Howard, When Morning Comes
Verb (2)
mackle (third-person singular simple present mackles, present participle mackling, simple past and past participle mackled)
- To speak like or act like rapper Macklemore, particularly in a way perceived as naive or cringeworthy.
- For Macklemore’s birthday, we’re going to have a look at some memorable instances of him mackling—his greatest mackles, if you will—both to celebrate how far he’s come this year and to remember what horrors he remains capable of.2015 June 19, Craig Jenkins, “A Brief History of Macklemore Mackling”, in Vice
- He copped what was rightfully Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy, felt genuinely bad and apologised privately, and then ruined it by making everyone aware that he had apologised – but he mackled on. He performed live dressed as a 19th century Jewish stereotype, tried to brush it off as a “random costume” –...2015 October 13, Emma Garland, “Nerds Won A Competition To Get Macklemore to Play at Their High School but the Teachers Said No Because They Have Good Taste”, in Vice
Forms of mackle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | mackles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | mackles |
| present participle | mackling |
| past participle | mackled |
| past | mackled |
Origin of mackle
From the earlier form macle, from macule, which see for more.
Back-formation from Macklemore interpreted as mackle + more, originally from a joke "I wish he would mackle less". The origin of Macklemore is unclear – it may be a corruption of McLemore or a childhood coinage by Macklemore.
Questions about mackle
Words near mackle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mackle (page history and authors); macule (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “mackle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mackle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.