Ja*cal" (hä*käl"; 239), n. [Amer. Sp., fr. Mex. xacalli.]
In Mexico and the southwestern United States, a kind of plastered house or hut, usually made by planting poles or timber in the ground, filling in between them with screen work or wickerwork, and daubing one or both sides with mud or adobe mortar; also, this method of construction.
© Webster 1913