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hack

 - 12 dictionary results
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hack

1  [hak]
Use hack in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to cut, notch, slice, chop, or sever (something) with or as with heavy, irregular blows (often fol. by up or down): to hack meat; to hack down trees.
2. to break up the surface of (the ground).
3. to clear (a road, path, etc.) by cutting away vines, trees, brush, or the like: They hacked a trail through the jungle.
4. to damage or injure by crude, harsh, or insensitive treatment; mutilate; mangle: The editor hacked the story to bits.
5. to reduce or cut ruthlessly; trim: The Senate hacked the budget severely before returning it to the House.
6. Slang. to deal or cope with; handle: He can't hack all this commuting.
7. Computers. to devise or modify (a computer program), usually skillfully.
8. Basketball. to strike the arm of (an opposing ball handler): He got a penalty for hacking the shooter.
9. British. to kick or kick at the shins of (an opposing player) in Rugby football.
10. South Midland and Southern U.S. to embarrass, annoy, or disconcert.
–verb (used without object)
11. to make rough cuts or notches; deal cutting blows.
12. to cough harshly, usually in short and repeated spasms.
13. Tennis.
a. to take a poor, ineffective, or awkward swing at the ball.
b. to play tennis at a mediocre level.
14. British. to kick or kick at an opponent's shins in Rugby football.
–noun
15. a cut, gash, or notch.
16. a tool, as an ax, hoe, or pick, for hacking.
17. an act or instance of hacking; a cutting blow.
18. a short, rasping dry cough.
19. a hesitation in speech.
20. Curling. an indentation made in the ice at the foot score, for supporting the foot in delivering the stone.
21. British. a gash in the skin produced by a kick, as in Rugby football.
—Verb phrase
22. hack around, Slang. to pass the time idly; indulge in idle talk.
—Idiom
23. hack it, Slang. to handle or cope with a situation or an assignment adequately and calmly: The new recruit just can't hack it.
Origin:
1150–1200; ME hacken; cf. OE tōhaccian to hack to pieces; c. D hakken, G hacken

Synonyms:
1. mangle, haggle. See cut.
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hack

2  [hak]
–noun
1. a person, as an artist or writer, who exploits, for money, his or her creative ability or training in the production of dull, unimaginative, and trite work; one who produces banal and mediocre work in the hope of gaining commercial success in the arts: As a painter, he was little more than a hack.
2. a professional who renounces or surrenders individual independence, integrity, belief, etc., in return for money or other reward in the performance of a task normally thought of as involving a strong personal commitment: a political hack.
3. a writer who works on the staff of a publisher at a dull or routine task; someone who works as a literary drudge: He was one among the many hacks on Grub Street.
4. British.
a. a horse kept for common hire or adapted for general work, esp. ordinary riding.
b. a saddle horse used for transportation, rather than for show, hunting, or the like.
5. an old or worn-out horse; jade.
6. a coach or carriage kept for hire; hackney.
7. Informal.
a. a taxi.
b. Also, hackie. a cabdriver.
8. Slang. a prison guard.
–verb (used with object)
9. to make a hack of; let out for hire.
10. to make trite or stale by frequent use; hackney.
–verb (used without object)
11. Informal. to drive a taxi.
12. to ride or drive on the road at an ordinary pace, as distinguished from cross-country riding or racing.
13. British. to rent a horse, esp. by the hour.
–adjective
14. hired as a hack; of a hired sort: a hack writer; hack work.
15. hackneyed; trite; banal: hack writing.
Origin:
1680–90; short for hackney

Synonyms:
2. mercenary. 3. scribbler. 9. lease, rent.

hack

3  [hak]
–noun
1. a rack for drying food, as fish.
2. a rack for holding fodder for livestock.
3. a low pile of unburnt bricks in the course of drying.
–verb (used with object)
4. to place (something) on a hack, as for drying or feeding.
5. Falconry. to train (a young hawk) by letting it fly freely and feeding it at a hack board or a hack house.
—Idiom
6. at hack, Falconry. (of a young hawk) being trained to fly freely but to return to a hack house or hack board for food rather than to pursue quarry.
Origin:
1565–75; var. of hatch 2
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To hack
hack 1   (hāk)   
v.   hacked, hack·ing, hacks

v.   tr.

  1. To cut or chop with repeated and irregular blows: hacked down the saplings.

  2. To break up the surface of (soil).

    1. Informal To alter (a computer program): hacked her text editor to read HTML.

    2. To gain access to (a computer file or network) illegally or without authorization: hacked the firm's personnel database.

  4. Slang To cut or mutilate as if by hacking: hacked millions off the budget.

  5. Slang To cope with successfully; manage: couldn't hack a second job.

v.   intr.

  1. To chop or cut something by hacking.

  2. Informal

    1. To write or refine computer programs skillfully.

    2. To use one's skill in computer programming to gain illegal or unauthorized access to a file or network: hacked into the company's intranet.

  3. To cough roughly or harshly.

n.  

  1. A rough, irregular cut made by hacking.

  2. A tool, such as a hoe, used for hacking.

  3. A blow made by hacking.

  4. A rough, dry cough.


[Middle English hakken, from Old English -haccian; see keg- in Indo-European roots. V., intr., sense 2, back-formation from hacker1.]
hack'a·ble adj.
hack 2   (hāk)   
n.  

  1. A horse used for riding or driving; a hackney.

  2. A worn-out horse for hire; a jade.

    1. One who undertakes unpleasant or distasteful tasks for money or reward; a hireling.

    2. A writer hired to produce routine or commercial writing.

    3. A taxicab.

    4. See hackie.

  4. A carriage or hackney for hire.

  5. Informal

    1. A taxicab.

    2. See hackie.

v.   hacked, hack·ing, hacks

v.   tr.

  1. To let out (a horse) for hire.

  2. To make banal or hackneyed with indiscriminate use.

v.   intr.

  1. To drive a taxicab for a living.

  2. To work for hire as a writer.

  3. To ride on horseback at an ordinary pace.

adj.  

  1. By, characteristic of, or designating routine or commercial writing: hack prose.

  2. Hackneyed; banal.

Phrasal Verb(s):
hack out Informal To produce (written material, for example), especially hastily or routinely: hacked out a weekly column.

[Short for hackney.]
hack·ie   (hāk'ē)   
n.  A taxicab driver. Also called hack2, hacker2.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
hack

  1. n.
    a taxi. : Go out to the street and see if you can get a hack.
  2. n.
    a cough. : That's a nasty hack you've got there.
  3. n.
    a professional writer who writes mediocre material to order. : This novel shows that even a hack can get something published
  4. n.
    a reporter. : Newspaper hacks have to know a little of everything.
  5. tv.
    to write clumsy or inefficient computer programs. : I can hack a program for you, but it won't be what you want.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

hack  (1)
in O.E. tohaccian "hack to pieces," from W.Gmc. *khak- (cf. O.Fris. hackia, Du. hakken, O.H.G. hacchon), perhaps infl. by O.N. höggva "to hack, hew," from PIE *kau- "to hew, strike." Sense of "short, dry cough" is 1802. Noun meaning "an act of hacking" is from 1836; fig. sense of "a try, an attempt" is first attested 1898. Slang sense of "cope with" (such as in can't hack it) is first recorded in Amer.Eng. 1955, with a sense of "get through by some effort," as a jungle.

hack  (2)
c.1700, originally, "person hired to do routine work," short for hackney "an ordinary horse" (c.1300), probably from place name Hackney (Middlesex), from O.E. Hacan ieg "Haca's Isle" (or possibly "Hook Island"). Now well within London, it was once pastoral. Apparently nags were raised on the pastureland there in early medieval times and taken to Smithfield horse market (cf. Fr. haquenée "ambling nag," an Eng. loan-word). Extended sense of "horse for hire" (1393) led naturally to "broken-down nag," and also "prostitute" (1579) and "drudge" (1546). Special sense of "one who writes anything for hire" led to hackneyed "trite" (1749); hack writer is first recorded 1826, though hackney writer is at least 50 years earlier. Sense of "carriage for hire" (1704) led to modern slang for "taxicab." Hacker "one who gains unauthorized access to computer records" is 1983, from slightly earlier tech slang sense of "one who works like a hack at writing and experimenting with software, one who enjoys computer programming for its own sake," 1976, reputedly coined at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hack (v.) "illegally enter a computer system" is first recorded 1984.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: 1hack
Pronunciation: 'hak
Function: intransitive verb
: to cough in a short dry manner

Main Entry: 2hack
Function: noun
: a short dry cough
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Computing Dictionary

hack jargon
1. Originally, a quick job that produces what is needed, but not well.
2. An incredibly good, and perhaps very time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed.
3. To bear emotionally or physically. "I can't hack this heat!"
4. To work on something (typically a program). In an immediate sense: "What are you doing?" "I'm hacking TECO." In a general (time-extended) sense: "What do you do around here?" "I hack TECO." More generally, "I hack "foo"" is roughly equivalent to ""foo" is my major interest (or project)". "I hack solid-state physics." See Hacking X for Y.
5. To pull a prank on. See hacker.
6. To interact with a computer in a playful and exploratory rather than goal-directed way. "Whatcha up to?" "Oh, just hacking."
7. Short for hacker.
8. See nethack.
9. (MIT) To explore the basements, roof ledges, and steam tunnels of a large, institutional building, to the dismay of Physical Plant workers and (since this is usually performed at educational institutions) the Campus Police. This activity has been found to be eerily similar to playing adventure games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Zork. See also vadding.
See also neat hack, real hack.
[The Jargon File]
(1996-08-26)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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