Hack /(hăk)/

1. A frame or grating of various kinds; as, a frame for drying bricks, fish, or cheese; a rack for feeding cattle; a grating in a mill race, etc.
2. Unburned brick or tile, stacked up for drying.

imp. & p. p. Hacked; p. pr. & vb. n. Hacking

1. To cut irregulary, without skill or definite purpose; to notch; to mangle by repeated strokes of a cutting instrument; as, to hack a post.

   My sword hacked like a handsaw.

2. Fig.: To mangle in speaking.
3. To program (a computer) for pleasure or compulsively; especially, to try to defeat the security systems and gain unauthorized access to a computer. (Computers)
4. To bear, physically or emotionally; as, he left the job because he couldn't hack the pressure. [Colloq.]

1. To kick the shins of (an opposing payer). (Football)

1. To cough faintly and frequently, or in a short, broken manner; as, a hacking cough.

1. A notch; a cut.
2. An implement for cutting a notch; a large pick used in breaking stone.
3. A hacking; a catch in speaking; a short, broken cough.
4. A kick on the shins, or a cut from a kick. (Football)
5. A clever computer program or routine within a program to accomplish an objective in a non-obvious fashion. (Computers)
6. A quick and inelegant, though functional solution to a programming problem. (Computers)
7. A taxicab. [informal]

1. A horse, hackneyed or let out for common hire; also, a horse used in all kinds of work, or a saddle horse, as distinguished from hunting and carriage horses.
2. A coach or carriage let for hire; a hackney coach; formerly, a coach with two seats inside facing each other; now, usually a taxicab.

   On horse, on foot, in hacks and gilded chariots.

3. The driver of a hack; a taxi driver; a hackman.
4. A bookmaker 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.

5. A procuress.

1. To ride or drive as one does with a hack horse; to ride at an ordinary pace, or over the roads, as distinguished from riding across country or in military fashion.

1. Hackneyed; hired; mercenary.

1. To use as a hack; to let out for hire.
2. To use frequently and indiscriminately, so as to render trite and commonplace.

   The word “remarkable” has been so hacked of late.

1. To be exposed or offered to common use for hire; to turn prostitute.
2. To live the life of a drudge or hack.