Raise some hackles
- (a)To annoy
- (b)To make someone happy
- (c)To do a great task
- (d)To sit idle
Answer
A
Why
Correct — A, To annoy. 'Hackles' are the hairs along an animal's neck and back that stand up when it is angry or ready to fight; to raise someone's hackles is to provoke their anger or irritation, so option (a) 'to annoy' is the meaning.
Why the others are wrong
- (b)To make someone happy — This is the opposite feeling — raising hackles is about anger, not pleasing anyone.
- (c)To do a great task — Achievement is unrelated to the idiom, which is about causing irritation.
- (d)To sit idle — Idleness has no connection to the raised-hackles image of a roused, angry animal.
Concept
An idiom-meaning item — to 'raise hackles' is to make someone angry or annoyed, from the way an animal's neck hairs rise when it is provoked.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the meaning of the idiom 'get on someone's nerves'.
- (a)to please them
- (b)to irritate or annoy them
- (c)to help them
- (d)to ignore them
Answer(b) to irritate or annoy them — to be a persistent source of annoyance.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the meaning of the idiom 'ruffle someone's feathers'.
- (a)to calm someone
- (b)to upset or annoy someone
- (c)to praise someone
- (d)to forgive someone
Answer(b) to upset or annoy someone — to disturb or irritate them, like ruffling a bird's plumage.