cross av OED ~ hackle v (1826); EDD ~ 11 (3) ~ hopple (a), (b); OED ~ hackling vbl n (1886).
   Comb cross-hackle, cross 'ackle, cross-heckle [phonetics unavailable]: to cross-examine vexatiously; to question; to argue with, contradict; by opposing someone, to annoy.
   1896 J A Folklore ix, 22 In Newfoundland hackle and cross hackle are especially applied to the questioning of a witness by a lawyer, when carried to a worrying degree. 1937 DEVINE 17 Cross 'ackle. To contradict. To ask difficult questions. T 222-66 I wonder how you vent your spleen on your husbands when they cross-hackle you; that is, if they ever do argue with you. 1966 SCAMMELL 36 Sid never got the courage to talk to his father about it. He knew it would only crosshackle him. 1975 RUSSELL 66 And they cross-hackled over it until Matty remembered something.
   cross-hackling: vexatious questioning, cross-examining; arguing.
   1966 Nfld Qtly Dec, p. 16 After two days of cross-heckling and every kind of pressure, nothing was discovered, and all the witnesses with the exception of Jacquard, were allowed to return home to Miquelon.
   cross pile v: to make a rectangular pile (of logs, dried cod, etc) with successive layers placed at right angles to the ones beneath.
   T 66/7-64 They'd got the fir rines for their fish-covering for their fish—they'd bring home what they think they'd need, pile 'em and cross pile 'em, shift 'em again, try them again. They'd stay flat. P 245-78 ~ Usually refers to piling sticks of firewood; one layer, say, east-west, the other north-south, keeping edges as square as possible. The term is also applied to fish piled in a square or bulk about 8 ft by 5 ft. A bulk might have a couple or more layers in one direction and the next couple or so in the opposite direction. Cross piling in this way is supposed to bind the fish and keep the bulk from falling over.

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