Pronunciations
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/hæk/
Verb
To chop or cut down in a rough manner.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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They hacked the brush down and made their way through the jungle.
More examples (2)
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 table and chairs with this new toy.
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 is released.
To withstand or put up with a difficult situation.
- Examples
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Can you hack it out here with no electricity or running water?
More examples (1)
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 deciding not to return.
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.
- Examples
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I hacked in a fix for this bug, but we'll still have to do a real fix later.
To accomplish a difficult programming task.
- Examples
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He can hack like no one else and make the program work as expected.
More examples (1)
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 hacked, leading to a leak of personal information.
To work with something on an intimately technical level.
Usage- Slang
- Transitive
- Examples
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I'm currently hacking distributed garbage collection.
To apply a trick, shortcut, skill, or novel method to something to increase productivity, efficiency or ease.
Usage- broadly
- Colloquial
- Transitive
- Examples
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I read up on dating tips so I can hack my sex life.
To hack into; to gain unauthorized access to (a computer system, e.g., a website, or network) by manipulating code.
Usage- Slang
- Transitive
- Synonyms
- Examples
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FACT: The People’s Republic of China (China) and their proxies bought, stole, or hacked as many as 220 million Americans’ voter registration data.
To gain unauthorized access to a computer or online account belonging to (a person or organisation).
Usage- broadly
- Slang
- Transitive
- Examples
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When I logged in to the social network, I discovered I'd been hacked.
To cheat by using unauthorized modifications.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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That player must be hacking, they got so many kills last game.
To strike an opponent with one's hockey stick, typically on the leg but occasionally and more seriously on the back, arm, head, etc.
- Examples
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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.
To make a flailing attempt to hit the puck with a hockey stick.
- Examples
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There's a scramble in front of the net as the forwards are hacking at the bouncing puck.
To swing at a pitched ball.
- Examples
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He went to the batter's box hacking.
To kick (a player) on the shins.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Barcelona had been harried and hurried and stretched thin by the midway point in the second half. Tackles flew in. Toes were crushed, shins barked, ankles hacked.
To strike in a frantic movement.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Centre-back Branislav Ivanovic then took a wild slash at the ball but his captain John Terry saved Chelsea's skin by hacking the ball clear for a corner with Kevin Davies set to strike from just six yards out.
To strike lightly as part of tapotement massage.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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[…] laterally from and then towards the spine, and continued downwards from the shoulders until the whole back has been hacked.
Noun
A tool for chopping.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A hacking blow.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A gouge or notch made by such a blow.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Look you what hacks are on his helmet !
A try, an attempt.
Usage- Countable
- Figurative
- Uncountable
The foothold traditionally cut into the ice from which the person who throws the rock pushes off for delivery.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A mattock or a miner's pickaxe.
Usage- Countable
- Obsolete
- Uncountable
An improvised device or solution to a problem.
Usage- Countable
- Informal
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Luckily for us J company picked us up in their hack — two snowmobiles with a big inflatable raft strapped between them.
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.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
A computer programmer who makes quick but inelegant changes to computer code to solve problems or add features.
Usage- Countable
- Dated
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Tsang is great but Zhou is such a hack — I wouldn't want him on my project.
A computer programmer, particularly a veteran or someone not immediately expected to be capable of programming.
Usage- Countable
- Dated
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Terry wrote that module? I didn't know she was a hack too!
An interesting technical achievement, particularly in computer programming.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Flugensoft came out with a neat hack last week that allows your watch to warm up your car if it's below freezing outside.
A trick, shortcut, skill, or novel method to increase productivity, efficiency, or ease.
Usage- Colloquial
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Putting your phone in a sandwich bag when you go to the beach is such a great hack.
More examples (1)
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 with my body.
One of my go-to side dish hacks is sprinkling crunchy, cracked whole spices onto a pan of vegetables before roasting.
The illegal accessing of a computer network.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
A video game or any computer software that has been altered from its original state.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
[…] found out a discarded sex mini-game in the code, and made it available again in the modified PC version of the game that they nicknamed “Hot Coffee.” This hack of the game created a controversy, since the inclusion of sexual content would change its age rating, […]
A practical joke that showcases cleverness and creativity.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
Time check, as for example upon synchronization of wristwatches.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
The act of striking an opponent with one's hockey stick, typically on the leg but occasionally and more seriously on the back, arm, head, etc.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Zersky is still down after that nasty hack by Lenner.
A swing of the bat at a pitched ball by the batter, particularly a choppy, ungraceful one that misses the ball such as at a fastball.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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And Melnick goes down with one last hack at an O'Malley fastball.
A kick on the shins in football of any type.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Wales are awarded a free kick after a minor hack by Järvinen on Llewellyn.
More examples (2)
“Ain't there just fine scrummages then! and the three trees you see there which come out into the play, that's a tremendous place when the ball hangs there, for you get thrown against the trees, and that's worse than any hack.”
Liverpool left-back Robertson had been excellent but was sent off for a reckless hack on Emerson Royal, a decision given after Paul Tierney reviewed the decision on the pitch-side monitor.
Confinement of an officer to their stateroom as a punishment.
Usage- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
You've been busted, you lost your qualifications as section leader three times, put in hack twice by me, with a history of high speed passes over five air control towers, and one admiral's daughter!
“Lieutenant Cauthen, you've got ten seconds to explain yourself before I put you in hack!”
An airplane of poor quality or in poor condition.
Usage- Countable
- Slang
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (2)
Henebry's planes returned to Japan to reload, and early in the morning brought almost 3,000 more troopers to Korea […] Before sunrise next day, all troops in the maneuver had been picked up again and airlifted in “Henebry Hacks” back to Japan.
[…] so that he had to make the 300-mile journey in a “hack” plane which had spluttering engines, which did not conduce to an easy mind nor to a comfortable journey; […]
Noun
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.
A food-rack for cattle.
A rack used to dry something, such as bricks, fish, or cheese.
A grating in a mill race.
Verb
To lay (bricks) on a rack to dry.
To keep (young hawks) in a state of partial freedom, before they are trained.
Noun
A horse for hire, especially one which is old and tired.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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.
A person, often a journalist, hired to do routine work.
- Examples
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I got by on hack work for years before I finally published my novel.
More examples (1)
[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.
Someone who is available for hire; hireling, mercenary.
Usage- Derogatory
The driver of a taxicab (hackney cab).
Usage- Slang
A vehicle let for hire; originally, a hackney cab, now typically a taxicab.
Usage- Canada
- US usage
- Colloquial
- Examples
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On horse, on foot, in hacks and gilded chariots.
More examples (1)
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.
A hearse.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
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
An untalented writer.
Usage- Derogatory
- Examples
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Dason is nothing but a two-bit hack.
He's nothing but the typical hack writer.
One who is professionally successful despite producing mediocre work. (Usually applied to persons in a creative field.)
Usage- Derogatory
A talented writer-for-hire, paid to put others' thoughts into felicitous language.
Usage- Derogatory
A political agitator.
A person who frequently canvasses for votes, either directly or by appearing to continuously act with the ulterior motive of furthering their political career.
Usage- UK usage
- Derogatory
A writer who hires himself out for any sort of literary work; an overworked man; a drudge.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed, / Who long was a bookseller's hack.
A procuress.
Usage- Obsolete
Verb
To make common or cliched; to vulgarise.
Usage- Dated
To ride a horse at a regular pace; to ride on a road (as opposed to riding cross-country etc.).
To live the life of a drudge or hack.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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Poor madam , now condemn'd to hack The rest of life with anxious Jack
To use as a hack; to let out for hire.
To use frequently and indiscriminately, so as to render trite and commonplace.
- Examples
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The word "remarkable" has been so hacked of late.
To drive a hackney cab.
- Examples
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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 […]
Verb
To cough noisily.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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This cold is awful. I can't stop hacking.
Noun
A dry cough.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A hacking; a catch in speaking; a short, broken cough.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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he speaks to this very question: which he does with so many hacks and hesitations
Interjection
An onomatopoeia for coughing.
- Examples
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Haaaack... Oooooooog... A-CHOO! That was terrible.. I gotta get in shape...
Noun
A small ball usually made of woven cotton or suede and filled with rice, sand or some other filler, for use in hackeysack.
Verb
To play hackeysack.
Noun
one who works hard at boring tasks
- Broader terms
a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends
- Broader terms
a mediocre and disdained writer
- Synonyms
a tool (as a hoe or pick or mattock) used for breaking up the surface of the soil
- Broader terms
a car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers where they want to go in exchange for money
- Broader terms
an old or over-worked horse
- Broader terms
a horse kept for hire
- Broader terms
a saddle horse used for transportation rather than sport etc.
- Broader terms
Verb
cut with a hacking tool
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
be able to manage or manage successfully
- Synonyms
- Examples
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I can't hack it anymore
she could not cut the long days in the office
cut away
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he hacked his way through the forest
kick on the arms
- Broader terms
kick on the shins
- Broader terms
fix a computer program piecemeal until it works
- Synonyms
- Examples
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I'm not very good at hacking but I'll give it my best
significantly cut up a manuscript
- Synonyms
cough spasmodically
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The patient with emphysema is hacking all day