hack

An onomatopoeia for coughing.

Interjection

  1. An onomatopoeia for coughing.
    • Haaaack... Oooooooog... A-CHOO! That was terrible.. I gotta get in shape... - 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Rogueport:

Origin

Unclear. Perhaps imitative; compare hock, hawk. Alternatively, perhaps from hack (“chop; do something difficult”) via the idea of doing something (like breathing) or with difficulty.

Noun Entry 2

  1. A tool for chopping.
  2. A hacking blow.
  3. A gouge or notch made by such a blow.
    • Look you what hacks are on his helmet ! - c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
  4. A try, an attempt.
  5. The foothold traditionally cut into the ice from which the person who throws the rock pushes off for delivery.
  6. A mattock or a miner's pickaxe.
  7. An improvised device or solution to a problem.
    • Luckily for us J company picked us up in their hack — two snowmobiles with a big inflatable raft strapped between them.
  8. An expedient, temporary solution, such as a small patch or change to code, meant to be replaced with a more elegant solution at a later date; a workaround.
    • Valleysoft released a hack yesterday to fix the "crashes when more than 50 recipients" bug for people who need it right away. The company says its next release will also solve this as well as add new features.
  9. A computer programmer who makes quick but inelegant changes to computer code to solve problems or add features.
    • Tsang is great but Zhou is such a hack — I wouldn't want him on my project.
  10. A computer programmer, particularly a veteran or someone not immediately expected to be capable of programming.
    • Terry wrote that module? I didn't know she was a hack too!
  11. An interesting technical achievement, particularly in computer programming.
    • Flugensoft came out with a neat hack last week that allows your watch to warm up your car if it's below freezing outside.
  12. A trick, shortcut, skill, or novel method to increase productivity, efficiency, or ease.
    • Putting your phone in a sandwich bag when you go to the beach is such a great hack.
    • Woebot was full of tasks and tricks — little mental health hacks — which at first made me roll my eyes. One day Woebot asked me to press an ice cube to my forehead, to feel the sensation as a way of better connecting...

Origin

From Middle English hacken, hakken, from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop; hoe; hew”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; peg; hook; handle”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian häkje (“to hack”), West Frisian hakje (“to hack”), Dutch hakken (“to chop up; hack”), German hacken (“to chop; hack; hoe”), Danish hakke (“to chop”), Swedish hacka (“to hack; chop”), French hacher (“to chop”). Related to hatch. The computer senses date back to at least 1955 when it initially referred to creative problem solving. By 1963, the negative connotations of “black hat” or malicious hacking had become associated with telephone hacking (cf. phreaking).

Forms

hacks

Synonyms

crack exploit band-aid contrivance improvision improvisation kludge makeshift quick fix patch lifehack

Derived

domain hack hack-and-slash hack and slasher hack-and-slasher hack-and-slay hackbarrow Hackintosh hack-iron hackish hack job hacklab hackproof hack saw hackspace hack squat hackster hacktivism hacktivist hackworm life hack lifehack maphack megahack menu hack

Noun Entry 3

  1. A horse for hire, especially one which is old and tired.
    • A cold wind, a piercing rain, and a bad road, with a worse hack (for his own horses had been knocked up), rendered more acute the misery which he, as a parted lover, was bound to feel. - 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth]...
  2. A person, often a journalist, hired to do routine work.
    • I got by on hack work for years before I finally published my novel.
    • [W]e know how the life of any hack, legal or literary, in a curacy, or in a marching regiment, or at a merchant’s desk, is dull of routine, and tedious of description. - 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace...
  3. Someone who is available for hire; hireling, mercenary.
  4. The driver of a taxicab (hackney cab).
  5. A vehicle let for hire; originally, a hackney cab, now typically a taxicab.
    • On horse, on foot, in hacks and gilded chariots. - 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
    • The interurban wasn't running because of the holiday, and the hacks, if there were any, would have been clustered round the Post Tavern at the other end of town. - 1993, TC Boyle, The Road to Wellville, Penguin,...
  6. A hearse.
    • 1920s, Jimmie Rodgers, Frankie and Johnny Bring out the rubber-tired buggie/Bring out the rubber-tired hack/I'm takin' my Johnny to the graveyard/But I ain't gonna bring him back
  7. An untalented writer.
    • Dason is nothing but a two-bit hack.
    • He's nothing but the typical hack writer.
  8. One who is professionally successful despite producing mediocre work. (Usually applied to persons in a creative field.)
  9. A talented writer-for-hire, paid to put others' thoughts into felicitous language.
  10. A political agitator.
  11. A person who frequently canvasses for votes, either directly or by appearing to continuously act with the ulterior motive of furthering their political career.
  12. A writer who hires himself out for any sort of literary work; an overworked man; a drudge.
    • Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed, / Who long was a bookseller's hack. - 1767, Oliver Goldsmith, Epitaph on Edward Purdon:

Origin

Abbreviation of hackney (“an ordinary horse”), probably from place name Hackney.

Forms

hacks

Synonyms

nag

Derived

apahack away in a hack covert hack hackable hack cab hack chaise hackdom hackette hackie Hackman hackman hackwork letterhack megahack sidehack

Noun falconry, hobbies

  1. A board upon which the falcon's food is placed; used by extension for the state of partial freedom in which they are kept before being trained.
  2. A food-rack for cattle.
  3. A rack used to dry something, such as bricks, fish, or cheese.
  4. A grating in a mill race.

Origin

Variations of hatch, heck.

Forms

hacks

Derived

hackle nuthack

Noun Entry 5

  1. A dry cough.
  2. A hacking; a catch in speaking; a short, broken cough.
    • he speaks to this very question: which he does with so many hacks and hesitations - 1660, H[enry] More, An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness; […], London: […] J[ames] Flesher, for W[illiam] Morden […], →OCLC:

Forms

hacks

Noun Entry 6

  1. A small ball usually made of woven cotton or suede and filled with rice, sand or some other filler, for use in hackeysack.

Origin

From hackysack.

Forms

hacks

Verb Entry 7

  1. To chop or cut down in a rough manner.
    • They hacked the brush down and made their way through the jungle.
    • Among other things he found a sharp hunting knife, on the keen blade of which he immediately proceeded to cut his finger. Undaunted he continued his experiments, finding that he could hack and hew splinters of wood from...
    • The ruthless practices of the Ontario Film Censor Board are by now the laughing stock of most of the world. Scenes that contain more flesh or affection than they find savoury are simply hacked out of the film before it...
  2. To withstand or put up with a difficult situation.
    • Can you hack it out here with no electricity or running water?
    • New Yorkers have been fleeing for months. But the fear some residents have of the violent reactions to the protests here is adding a new challenge to those asking themselves whether they can hack the city. Many are...
  3. To make a quick code change to patch a computer program, often one that, while being effective, is inelegant or makes the program harder to maintain.
    • I hacked in a fix for this bug, but we'll still have to do a real fix later.

    Synonyms: frob tweak kludge bodge

  4. To accomplish a difficult programming task.
    • He can hack like no one else and make the program work as expected.
    • The police said that officers belonging to the Cyber Security and Technology Crime unit searched an office in the Wong Chuk Hang neighborhood on Friday afternoon on the suspicion that computers at the institute had been...
  5. To work with something on an intimately technical level.
    • I'm currently hacking distributed garbage collection.
  6. To apply a trick, shortcut, skill, or novel method to something to increase productivity, efficiency or ease.
    • I read up on dating tips so I can hack my sex life.
  7. To hack into; to gain unauthorized access to (a computer system, e.g., a website, or network) by manipulating code.

    Synonyms: crack

  8. To gain unauthorized access to a computer or online account belonging to (a person or organisation).
    • When I logged in to the social network, I discovered I'd been hacked.
  9. To cheat by using unauthorized modifications.
    • That player must be hacking, they got so many kills last game.
  10. To strike an opponent with one's hockey stick, typically on the leg but occasionally and more seriously on the back, arm, head, etc.
    • He's going to the penalty box after hacking the defender in front of the goal.
    • Jensen gets a 5 minute major penalty for hacking Orsov in the back.
  11. To make a flailing attempt to hit the puck with a hockey stick.
    • There's a scramble in front of the net as the forwards are hacking at the bouncing puck.
  12. To swing at a pitched ball.
    • He went to the batter's box hacking.

Forms

hacks hacking hacked

Derived

apahack hackability hackable hack about hackaround hack around hackathon hack away hackbot hackday hack down hackee hacker hackery hackfest hackfolk Hackgate hack in hacking hackingly hacky hack into hack it hack off

Verb dated

  1. To make common or cliched; to vulgarise.
  2. To ride a horse at a regular pace; to ride on a road (as opposed to riding cross-country etc.).
  3. To live the life of a drudge or hack.
    • Poor madam , now condemn'd to hack The rest of life with anxious Jack - 1765, Oliver Goldsmith, The Double Transformation:
  4. To use as a hack; to let out for hire.
  5. To use frequently and indiscriminately, so as to render trite and commonplace.
    • The word "remarkable" has been so hacked of late. - 1865, John Henry Newman, An Internal Argument for Christianity:
  6. To drive a hackney cab.
    • When I was hacking in Brooklyn, I used to run him over to the Court Street restaurants, where he'd sit in Nick and Tony's Pizzeria […] - 2004, Joseph Trigoboff, The Shooting Gallery, page 238:

Forms

hacks hacking hacked

Verb Entry 9

  1. To lay (bricks) on a rack to dry.
  2. To keep (young hawks) in a state of partial freedom, before they are trained.

Forms

hacks hacking hacked

Verb Entry 10

  1. To cough noisily.
    • This cold is awful. I can't stop hacking.

Forms

hacks hacking hacked

Verb Entry 11

  1. To play hackeysack.

Forms

hacks hacking hacked