hackn.1
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ 1. A tool or implement for breaking or chopping up.
a. Agriculture. A tool resembling a mattock, hoe, or pickaxe, mainly used to break up clods of earth. Chiefly English regional in later use.Some of the earliest quots. may be examples of sense 1b.
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the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > mattock, hoe, or hack
hack1333
society > occupation and work > equipment > cutting tool > axe > [noun] > chopper or cleaver
hack1333
hackera1398
chopping-knife1552
clavestock1580
cleaver1580
sax1669
chopper1818
1333 in J. Raine Inventories & Acct. Rolls Benedictine Houses Jarrow & Monk-Wearmouth (1854) 21 (MED) In curia..j hak, j gaveloc, j mel ferreus.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 1241 He lened him þan a-pon his hak, Wit seth his sun þus gat he spak.
1541 in J. M. Bestall & D. V. Fowkes Chesterfield Wills & Inventories, 1521–1603 (1977) 23 A spet cobers a haxe a wemble a hacke and a iryn weyip.
1594 in J. Barmby Churchwardens' Accts. Pittington (1888) 36 Payed for sharpinge the church hacke.
1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique vii. xi. 816 Such seedes may bee sowen in little furrowes made with a hacke or grubbing axe.
1620 G. Markham Farwell to Husbandry ii. 10 With these hacks, you shall hew and cut to pieces, all the earth formerly plowed vp, furrow by furrow.
1673 J. Ray N. Countrey Words in Coll. Eng. Words 34 A Hack; a Pick-ax; a Mattock made only with one, and that a broad end.
1797 Monthly Mag. 3 34 The custom..of breaking the ground or clods with a sort of hack.
1855 F. K. Robinson Gloss. Yorks. Words 77 Hack, half a mattock, one without the adze end.
1957 E. E. Evans Irish Folk Ways 148 A mattock or adze..served as a clod-breaker. The ‘hack’ of the Pennine country comes to mind here.
1993 B. I. Guslitzer & P. Y. Pavlov in O. Soffer & N. D. Praslov From Kostenki to Clovis xiii. 182 Bone inventories contain beads, needles, points, as well as small mattocks and hacks made of mammoth ivory.
b. Agriculture. A pronged tool similar to a mattock, used to pull up root vegetables, drag dung, etc. Cf. drag n. 2e.
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the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > mattock, hoe, or hack > hack
hack?c1475
prong hoe1733
?c1475 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 15562) f. 59 A hacc, bidens.
1570 P. Levens Manipulus Vocabulorum sig. Aii/2 An hack, mattock, bidens, entis.
1797 J. Sinclair Statist. Acct. Scotl. XIX. 535 They loosen all the ground completely with a hack, an instrument with a handle of about 4 or 5 feet long, and two iron prongs like a fork, but turned inwards.
1825 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. Hack, Muck-hack, a pronged mattock, used for dragging dung from carts.
1848 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 9 ii. 505 They [sc. turnips] are pulled up by a peculiar drag, or ‘hack’ as it is provincially called [N. Rid. Yorks.].
1893 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words Hawk, an implement or hand-tool for filling manure.
1934 Scotsman 6 Dec. 7 Convicted of cruelly ill-treating a work mare by..striking it with a dung hack.
1968 E. R. Buckler Ox Bells & Fireflies ii. 33 Tumbling the potatoes back between his legs..with a single expert motion of the hack.
2012 Telegraph-Jrnl. (New Brunswick) (Nexis) 20 Aug. a4 I..haven't opened the social assistance door..as long as I have a potato hack and a fishing pole.
c. Mining. A pick used to break stone, esp. in excavation work. Now historical.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > mining equipment > [noun] > miner's pick
pulypyk1360
twibillc1440
mandrel1516
hack?a1558
two-billc1619
tubber1671
fouldenhead1747
poll-pick1747
tubbal1847
moil1871
dresser1881
?a1558 in J. W. Gough Mendip Mining Laws & Forest Bounds (1931) 6 Every man..shaull have hys haks thow ij weys after the Rake.
1603 Orders in Trans. Inst. Mining Engineers 20 550 Every Workman..having found a Chine, or Chines, within ye Said Eighteen Foot, then to have his Said Hacks throw, after his Said Chine, and Chines every way.
1639 G. Plattes Discov. Subterraneall Treasure ii. 12 Before Noone it guided mee to the Orifice of a Lead mine: which I tryed, having..an hacke of Iron and a Spade.
1681 T. Houghton Rara Avis in Terris (new ed.) Explan. Terms sig. F2v Hack, a Tool that Miners use like a Mattock.
1747 W. Hooson Miners Dict. sig. K2 Hack, a Tool much used in Mines, where it is soft Work to cut it with.
1849 G. C. Greenwell Gloss. Terms Coal Trade Northumberland & Durham 29 Hack, a heavy and obtuse-pointed pick, of the length of 18 inches, and weight of 7 lbs., used in sinking or stone work.
1871 W. Morgans Man. Mining Tools 72 The pick is notably a miner's implement. In different districts it is called either a ‘mandrel’, ‘pike’, ‘slitter’, ‘mattock’, or ‘hack’.
1963 R. J. Forbes Stud. Anc. Technol. VII. 193 The iron pick and the rake or hack made of iron and used to collect the ore.
2014 A. A. Gentes tr. P. F. Iakubovich World of Outcasts (2015) I. iv. 54 The fifth had a half-pood iron sledgehammer, an axe, a hack, and several pickaxes.
d. A tool with a long handle and a blade used for cutting wood, esp. one used to cut channels or notches in trees. Now historical and rare.
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the world > food and drink > farming > forestry or arboriculture > [noun] > bill hook
wood-billc725
billc1000
falsartc1380
wood-hookc1440
falchion1483
forest-bill1488
bush-scythe1552
brush-bill1588
cutting-bill1601
bill-hook1611
hook-bill1613
bush-bill1631
hack1846
snagger1847
slasher1858
bush-hook1860
slash-hook1891
1846 G. Macfarlane Rhymes of Leisure Hours 61 The house-wright's hak an' mason's hew Are seldom heard.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1046/1 Hack, a tool for cutting jags or channels in trees for the purpose of bleeding them.
1881 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers 1880–1 9 144 Hack, a sharp blade on a long handle used for cutting billets in two.
1935 Naval Stores Handbk. (U.S. Dept. Agric. Misc. 209) 66 The streak cut with a puller is usually narrower than that cut with a hack, for it is very difficult to cut a wide strip of wood with a puller.
2002 J. Lancaster Judge Harley & his Boys v. 105 For chipping, one used a ‘hack’ with a five-pound iron ball built into the end of the handle.
2.
a. An act of hacking; a chopping, cutting blow.
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the world > movement > impact > striking > striking in specific manner > [noun] > a hacking blow
hacka1550
hag1825
a1550 (c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Wemyss) cxlvii. l. 2212 Þai..come behind þe Scottismenis bak, And slew, and hewit, and maid fell hak.
1576 W. Clever tr. J. Glaucus Knowl. Kings f. 50 He which might haue a hacke at the innocent fleshe of this holy Prophete, thought he dyd good seruyce to that idolatrous Image.
1654 E. Leigh Syst. Divinity iv. iv. 314 We must therefore every day give a hack at the old man.
a1739 C. Jarvis tr. M. de Cervantes Don Quixote (1742) II. ii. ix. 139 He unsheathed his sword..and, with a violent and unheard of fury, began to rain hacks and slashes upon the Moorish puppets.
1819 P. F. Sidney Nuts John Bull 91 Fixing himself in his morocco saddle, he made a hack at his opponent's head.
1874 2nd Rep. Vermont State Board Agric. 1873–4 238 I have a chance to have several hacks at the weeds before the crop is sown.
1923 Humorist 8 Dec. 497/2 At football, when charging a back..I deliver a full-blooded hack.
1991 J. Galloway Scenes from Life No. 23 in Blood (1992) 19 Over the week, sudden thuds and hacks began to punctuate the hours, digging into soft wood.
b. figurative (chiefly U.S.). A try, an attempt, a go.
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the world > action or operation > endeavour > [noun] > an attempt
tastec1330
assayc1386
proffera1400
proof?a1400
pluck?1499
saymenta1500
minta1522
attemptate1531
attempt1548
attemption1565
say1568
trice1579
offer1581
fling1590
tempt1597
essay1598
trial1614
tentative1632
molition1643
conamen1661
put1661
tentamen1673
conatus1722
shot1756
go1784
ettle1790
shy1824
hack1830
try1832
pop1839
slap1840
venture1842
stagger1865
flutter1874
whack1884
whirl1884
smack1889
swipe1892
buck1913
lash1941
wham1957
play1961
1830 J. P. Martin Narr. Adventures Revolutionary Soldier 105 The patrol, which consisted of twelve or fifteen men, all had a hack at me, some of the balls passing very near me indeed.
1836 D. Crockett Exploits & Adventures in Texas 79 Better take a hack by way of trying your luck at guessing.
1898 M. Deland Old Chester Tales 244 I get more men in a saloon, that's why; and when the show's done I get a hack at 'em.
1904 R. W. Chambers In Search of Unknown xiv. 124 Though I was deadly afraid of ridicule, I finally made up my mind that science ought to have a hack at it.
1969 New Yorker 12 Apr. 95/1 We go into the second order of testing,..which would give us a better hack, a better indication of what we are dealing with.
2014 M. D. Seiler Sighing Woman Tea 58 Uncle had scratched out an arrangement for viola and guitar. So they might, as he put it, ‘take a hack at it’.
3.
a. A gash or cut made by a sharp blow or by rough or clumsy cutting; a nick, an incision; spec. (U.S.) a notch made in a tree, esp. to mark a spot or serve as a guide.
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the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > cutting > [noun] > a cut or incision
garse?c1225
chinea1387
slit1398
incisionc1400
slivingc1400
raising?a1425
scotchc1450
racec1500
tranchec1500
kerf?1523
hack1555
slash1580
hew1596
raze1596
incutting1598
slisha1616
scar1653
lancementa1655
slap1688
slip1688
nick1692
streak1725
sneck1768
snick1775
rut1785
sliver1806
overcut1874
society > communication > indication > marking > a mark > [noun] > line > made with sharp instrument
score1570
scoring1688
race1819
hack1887
1555 R. Eden tr. V. Biringucci Pyrotechnia in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 335v Tables..hauing theyr playnes made ful of hackes, & notches, with the helpe of the sawe or such other instrumentes of iren.
c1575 Perfect Bk. Kepinge Sparhawkes (1886) 34 Take a pece of clene yonge beefe cut..wt ought hacks or jagges.
1608 H. Plat Floraes Paradise 168 You must make these hacks with the nether corner, or point of a small hatchet, so as euery notch may bee about halfe an inch long.
1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida i. ii. 201 Looke you what hacks are on his helmet. View more context for this quotation
1705 tr. D. de Saavedra Fajardo Commonw. Learning 140 Their Faces full of Hacks and Scars, one without a Nose, another without Eyes.
1764 Court & City Medley 31 Three Knives their Blades quite full of Hacks, Their Edges thicker than their Backs.
1887 Forest & Stream 28 179 I went into the woods to cut a hack as a guide in hunting.
1913 R. Griffin Delaware Bride 40 Oh, the hacks, the deep hacks! Hurrah for the axe! Its crashes and cracks.
1989 J. M. Vardaman How to make Money growing Trees vi. 74 The most common method of doing so is to blaze trees.., showing by a cut or hack on the bark the side on which the line passes.
2013 D. D. Scott Uncovering Hist. vi. 175 There were also cuts and hacks from the exhumations.
b. Chiefly Scottish. A painful crack in the skin, usually caused by cold, frost, etc.; a chap (chap n.1 1b).
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the world > health and disease > ill health > injury > [noun] > chap or crack
rhagadesOE
chap1398
chine1398
rupture?a1425
chapping1540
rift1543
chame1559
cleft1576
chop1578
crepature1582
cone1584
chink1597
fent1597
chawn1601
star1607
hacka1610
kin1740
sand-crack1895
the world > health and disease > ill health > injury > [noun] > wound > cut
carfa1000
seamc1400
slapc1480
gap?a1500
gash1528
cut1530
scarification?1541
chopping1558
slash1580
slaughter1592
snip1600
hacka1610
sluice1648
a1610 P. Lowe Disc. Whole Art Chyrurgerie (1612) v. xxvii. 184 The hacks or rids of the lips, is a solution of continuitie in the tender flesh of the lip.
1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Hack, a chop, a crack or cleft in the hands or feet.
1887 J. Service Life Dr. Duguid xxiv. 161 She has to hae..mittens on her hauns after she has creeshed them weel with saim for the hacks.
1923 N. Munro in Evening News (Glasgow) 5 Nov. 2/4 Folk play the dirtiest tricks on the doctor; a chap'll get a prescription for a hack on his heel and pass it round the whole tenement.
1996 Sunday Mail (Glasgow) (Nexis) 19 Aug. 38 I've tried everything for painful hacks on my fingers. Can you help?
c. Curling. Originally: a hollow made in the ice to steady the foot when delivering a stone. Later: a sloping artificial foothold placed on the ice, serving the same purpose.
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society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > winter sports > curling > [noun] > area of ice > indentation for foot
hack1811
hatch1811
1811 J. Ramsay Acct. Game Curling 6 A longitudinal hollow is made to support the foot, close by the tee..This is called a hack or hatch.
1892 J. Kerr in J. M. Heathcote & C. G. Tebbutt Skating (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) 361 He [sc. the curler] must first fit the tee..while his right foot rests in the hack or on the heel of the crampit.
1951 Scots Mag. Jan. 303 The curling is careful, calculated. Many play from the hack, and many slide away their stones without lifting it clear of the ice.
1992 Independent 14 Nov. 51/3 Yesterday the ice rink at Alexandra Palace, in north London, was taken over by stones and sweeps, hog-lines and hacks...This was the annual Scotland v England v Wales triangular curling challenge.
2001 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 23 Dec. 16 Mike cleans a stone and hunkers down on the ‘hack’, a kind of rubber starting-block.
d. Originally Sport (chiefly Association Football and Rugby): a cut or gash in the skin caused by a kick with the toe of a boot. In later use more widely: a sharp, painful kick on the leg.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > injury > [noun] > wound > cut > caused by kick
hack1857
1857 T. Hughes Tom Brown's School Days i. vi. 130 [They] pulled up their trousers and shewed the hacks they had received in the good cause.
1880 Times 12 Nov. 4/5 Hacks and bruises and hurts more serious are not noticed in the heat of the last few moments.
1933 Manch. Guardian 10 Apr. 3 Stewart got two painful hacks on the legs and did not resume after half-time.
1973 Guardian 28 June 16 McGarrity's novel..is..as painfully direct as a hack on the shin.
2001 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 21 Jan. 3 I gave her a friendly wave and, as I did so, Mary gave me a terrible hack on the shins.
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the mind > language > speech > defective or inarticulate speech > [noun] > stammer or stammering > sound or form used in
hum1469
hick1607
ha1612
hack1660
haw-haw1838
hesitation-form1933
1660 H. More Explan. Grand Myst. Godliness vi. xvii. 270 He speaks to this very question..with so many hacks and hesitations.
1881 F. G. Lee Reginald Barentyne iv. 46 After many hacks and stammers, he would get through a few sentences of the exordium haltingly.
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the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > [noun] > hoeing > ridge thrown up by
hack1741
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > ploughing > [noun] > ridge thrown up by plough
hack1741
earth-ridge1796
1741 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman May i. 13 That Ground which was fallowed in April into broad Lands..is commonly stirred in this month [sc. May] into Hacks.
1742 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandman June ii. 20 Plowing the Land a-cross..in Hacks or Combs.
6. A repetitive cough, esp. one which is short and dry; (also) an act of coughing in this way.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > respiratory spasms > [noun] > coughing
hoasta1300
cough1377
coughing1398
hack1775
1775 J. Ash New Dict. Eng. Lang. Hawk, (s. from the Brit. hack) A kind of cough, an effort to force phlegm up the throat.
1845 Amer. Jrnl. Med. Sci. (1847) 13 278 The child had had cough for three days, gradually..changing from a dry hack to the peculiar shrill cough of croup.
1885 L. W. Champney in Harper's Mag. Feb. 370/1 She had a little hack of a cough.
1936 D. Thomas in First Comment Treasury (1937) 77 The old forget the grief, Hack of the cough, the hanging albatross.
1993 Food & Living 10 Jan. 13/1 His throat was dry, sore and begging for another annoying hack.
2008 J. Segura Occup. Hazards 221 ‘Next time’, I say between painful hacks, ‘get me in the nuts, wouldja?’
7.
a. Computing. An inelegant yet effective solution to a computing problem; a workaround, a short cut, a modification.
ΚΠ
1972 S. Brand in Rolling Stone 7 Dec. 51/1 Annie..was tugged over to the lag to see the hand–eye rig, the number half–tone printer, various geometric display hacks.
1985 InfoWorld (Nexis) 9 Dec. 28 I think of RAM residency as a hack at concurrency,..a neat wart on a system not built to do it.
2004 Pop. Sci. Apr. 90 The easiest hacks are ‘backdoors’, specific button combinations on your remote that enable features like an alphabetized personal playlist and a 30-second-skip button.
2013 Smith Jrnl. Winter 36/2 His latest project is a hack of Minecraft..that lets players build open-ended, lo-tech looking worlds with voxel ‘blocks.’
b. An attempt at or act of gaining unauthorized access or control over a computer system, network, etc., typically remotely. Cf. hack v.1 15d.
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society > computing and information technology > [noun] > act of accessing > without authorization
hacking1983
hack1984
1984 Daily Tel. 3 Dec. 3/3 It looks possible that a demonstration ‘hack’ could be arranged by some users to demonstrate that Prestel is vulnerable.
1997 InfoWorld 21 July 80/4 This is especially important when doing real-time monitoring if you can see a hack in progress.
2002 CSO Dec. 55/2 Determining whether a hack is an act of terror could be a sticky issue between CSOs and insurers.
2012 M. Walker All-in-one Certified Ethical Hacker Exam Guide i. 14 Learn the hacker types, the stages of a hack, and other definitions in the chapter.
c. In extended use: any strategy, adaptation, or expedient solution adopted in order to manage one’s time and daily activities in a more efficient way.
ΚΠ
2005 Globe & Mail (Canada) 16 Apr. l. 10/6 Mann and writing partner Danny O'Brien see the hipster PDA as part of a bigger trend they call ‘life hacks.’
2009 Independent 14 Feb. (Mag.) 43/1 Many other hacks are simple to do and look very tasteful, like the ‘Sommar’ paper table cloth used to wallpaper the back of an old Ikea cabinet.
2015 Independent (Nexis) 31 Mar. Using an empty plastic bottle, you can essentially ‘hoover’ up egg yolks with speed and ease. I decided to share this particular hack with a friend of mine and her immediate response was ‘Oh wow.’
8. In full computer hack. A person who is skilled at using computers, either for pleasure or in order to gain unauthorized access to systems or data. Cf. hacker n. 3a, 3b.
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society > computing and information technology > [noun] > ability to use > specialist, enthusiast
computer scientist1957
computerist1964
hacker1969
techie1970
hack1972
computer hacker1976
geek1983
tech-head1983
techno-head1988
cybergeek1992
alpha geek1993
society > computing and information technology > [noun] > act of accessing > without authorization > one who performs
hacker1963
hack1972
computer hacker1976
cyberpunk1989
black hat1990
1972 Tech (MIT) 3 Mar. 8/3 One other aspect of the meet may be interesting to some of the MIT computer hacks, and will do nothing to change MIT's image to the outside world. This will be the first major gymnastics meet to use all computerized scoring.
1982 Info World 27 Sept. 42/2 Think about the attributes of the perfect computer freak. Our bionic hack works a problem for days... The hack can live on junk food and go without sleep.
1998 Guardian 6 Aug. (Online section) 3/1 Shocked computer hacks are invited to a preview of Robert Redford's new slushbuster, The Horse Whisperer.
2011 NBC News Transcripts (Nexis) 3 Jan. It looks like YouTube for sailors..not from some teenage computer hack but from one of the top commanders in the US Navy.
Compounds
hack-proof adj. resistant to unauthorized access or infiltration by a computer hack; = hackerproof adj. at hacker n. Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1988 Cyberhackers in alt.cyberpunk (Usenet newsgroup) 2 Feb. You have the right access codes. Ultimately, it's a way of proving that you are better then The Authority which designed the hack-proof system.
1995 Syracuse (N.Y) Herald-Jrnl. 13 Feb. b12/2 To win acceptance, digital money must be hack-proof.
2005 Pop. Mech. Jan. 42/2 The product was designed to provide a reasonable amount of security, but isn't meant to be hackproof.
2015 Pittsburgh Post Gaz. (Nexis) 18 May (Sooner ed.) b6 Both the Justice Department and the FBI have been hostile to truly secure technological advances, such as the hack-proof phones Google and Apple introduced last year.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
hackn.2
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ 1.
a. A horse used for hire (cf. hackney n. 1b). Also: an inferior or worn out horse, a nag.Recorded earliest in hackman n. 1.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > draught-horse > that pulls vehicle > of specific type (miscellaneous) > that pulls coach
hack1571
coach-horse1590
coacher1769
stager1852
1571 Portmote in Faversham Borough Rec. (Kent Hist. & Libr. Centre FA/JBf14, membrane 4) [James Wyelye and Anthony Wyelye of Faversham].., husbandmen'..[Edward Holte of Faversham].., hackeman.
1677 A. Behn Town-fopp i. ii. 8 Your own natural Lady is hardly worth the hire of a Hack.
1699 W. Pinkethman Love without Interest i. 1 You Sparks of the Town use us as you do your Hacks, ride us till you tire or gall, then turn us loose on the Common.
1740 C. Cibber Apol. Life C. Cibber ii. 21 Beaten Tits, that had just had the Mortification of seeing my Hack of a Pegasus come in before them.
1787 ‘P. Pindar’ Lousiad: Canto II 43 in Lousiad: Canto I (ed. 4) Mount on a jack-ass..astride his braying hack.
1829 T. Hood Epping Hunt 14 Butcher's hacks That shambled to and fro'.
1841 C. Dickens Barnaby Rudge ii. 241 My horse, young man. He is but a hack hired from a roadside posting house.
1904 ‘G. B. Lancaster’ Sons o' Men 7 In the two-hundred-acre..paddock fed the refuse of the station hacks.
1961 M. Magnusson tr. H. Laxness Atom Station v. 39 Beethoven..fell in love with a few countesses, rather like an old hack falling for stud-mares.
2012 G. B. Pierce Sublime Today 72 A pitiful creature running around in circles on a worn-out hack.
b. A horse, esp. one of a calm disposition, used for general riding on a road, path, etc., as distinct from cross-country, military, or other kind of riding; a road horse. In later use also: a ridden show horse of any of several breeds and sizes, with a pleasing appearance and excellent manners. Cf. hackney n. 1a.Recorded earliest in road hack n. at road n. Compounds 1a(a).cover, park, town hack, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > for riding
road horseOE
hackney1299
rouncyc1300
mounturec1400
hackney horse1473
steed1597
Galloway1598
roussin1602
naggon1630
saddle horse1647
sit-horse?1652
rider1698
saddle mare1707
hack1737
hack horse1760
ride1787
Bucephalus1799
steed-horse1842
mount1856
saddler1888
saddle seat1895
1737 London Evening-Post 8 Dec. (advt.) Coaches, gilt Chariots, with fine Horses, at the Price of common Road Hacks.
1796 J. Lawrence Philos. & Pract. Treat. Horses I. iv. 165 Hack, or Hackney, is the general term for a road-horse, and by no means conveys any sense of inferiority, or refers exclusively to horses let out for hire.
1843 W. Youatt Horse (new ed.) iv. 90 One of those animals..that could do almost anything as a hack, a hunter, or in harness.
1861 Times 11 July 7/2 Every man who..saunters through Rotton-row from 12 to 2 on a high-priced hack.
1936 Field 24 Oct. 1015/2 In recent years there has been considerable interest shown in the training and dressage of hacks.
1964 W. A. Anderson Doctor in Mountains iii. 33 I bought for eight pounds one of the station-bred hacks.
1992 Morgan Horse Nov. 38/3 (advt.) Many championships and year-end awards. English pleasure, road hack, western pleasure and parade.
2014 Horse & Rider Apr. 98/1 Robert and Claire Oliver..are best known for showing and producing hunters, hacks and cobs.
c. A ride on a horse, typically through countryside.
ΚΠ
1913 23 Dec. in J. S. Reeve Radnor Reminisc. (1921) 24 Goshen School is our furthest up-country meet..but..it nearly always is cold.., to make a long, long hack home seem just that much longer.
1969 C. Carey Showjumping Summer ix. 103 I took the horses for quiet morning hacks.
1998 Gloucestershire Echo (Nexis) 23 Mar. 21 He's a sweet ride, although he's terrible out on a hack.
2012 J. Campbell Bye Bye B&B xii. 167 In the field were two horses gasping to get out for a good long hack with competent equestrians.
2. A driver of a hackney carriage. Now historical (chiefly U.S. in later use).
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > transport by vehicles plying for hire > [noun] > driving or hiring of cabs > driver of hired cab > of hackney-coach or cab
hackney coachman1623
hack1662
hack driver1709
hackman1796
jarvey1820
cab1850
1662 H. Marten Familiar Lett. xl. 41 Here is 20 s. for thy Coaches earnest, if that businesse takes, and 5 s. for the Hack that brings thee hither.
1687 M. Prior & Earl of Halifax Hind & Panther Transvers'd 21 They arrive and..slipping through the Palsgrave, bilkt poor Hack.
1713 R. Steele in Guardian 27 Mar. 2/1 The happy Minute..when our Hack had the happiness to take in his expected Fare.
1835 Army & Navy Chron. 16 Apr. 123/1 He called to a hack to come and take him in.
1857 O. W. Wight Quinland II. 64 He let his eye run along the crowd on the wharf until it rested upon a vociferous ‘hack’ that seemed to suit him.
1934 B. Appel Brain Guy 79 Hell, that hack must've figured you a big shot.
2004 D. Borsvold Brecksville i. 9 Many families..relied upon Beecher Bell, the town hack, to get them safely over the tough terrain in his carriage.
3. A vehicle available for or seeking hire (originally a hackney coach or carriage, now typically a taxicab). Cf. hackney n. 4. Now chiefly North American colloquial.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > vehicles (plying) for hire > [noun] > hackney carriage
hackney coach1618
hell-cart1623
hackney1664
hack1692
fiacre1699
hackney carriage1735
dilly1805
street coach1818
jarvey1819
cab1822
hackney cab1832
gurney1884
cabriolet1907
1692 Sir E. King Let. 2 Jan. in E. M. Thompson Corr. Family of Hatton (1878) II. 167 About 14 days since, 2 huffing men cam at night for me in a hack; but I was abroad.
1701 Laconics (new ed.) iii. 88 Bully Dawson was overturn'd in a Hack, not far from his Lodgings.
1752 H. Fielding Amelia II. iv. iii. 27 She took a Hack, and came directly to the Prison.
1795 Boston (U.S.) Gaz. 28 Dec. 3/1 There is but little safety for the ladies and children [in the streets of Boston], but in the hacks.
1823 W. Scott Let. 11 Feb. (1934) VII. 325 To make their way in a noble haik with four horses.
1872 W. D. Howells Their Wedding Journey 55 ‘We must have a carriage’, he added..hailing an empty hack.
1917 H. James Ivory Tower 70 He's there in a hack to take you home.
1951 Z. Popkin Quiet Street vii. 331 My father, for instance, he drives a hack, a taxi cab.
2014 N. Brooks Indecent Acts 223 I stand by the kerb squinten and try hailen a taxi a black hack looken out for there orange light comen towards me.
4.
a. Originally: a person who may be hired to do any kind of work as required; a drudge, a lackey (cf. hackney n. 2). In later use: spec. a person who hires himself or herself out to do any kind of literary work; (hence) a writer producing dull, unoriginal work, esp. to order.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to conditions > [noun] > hireling
hireling1535
hackney1546
journeyman1548
coolie1622
mercedary1656
hack1699
hiree1811
society > authority > subjection > service > servant > types of servant > [noun] > menial servant or drudge
drivelc1225
meniala1387
druggarc1500
drudgea1513
kitchen wencha1556
coal carrier1567
droy1570
packhorse?1577
droil1579
blue coat1583
sumpter1587
mill-horse1602
subsizar1602
jackal1649
mediastine1658
slut1664
hack1699
scrub1709
Gibeonite1798
the lion's provider1808
slush1825
Slave of the Lampc1840
runabout1893
lobby-gow1906
squidge1907
dogsbody1922
legman1939
shit-kicker1950
society > leisure > the arts > literature > writer or author > [noun] > hack
hack writer1711
garreteer1720
hack authora1734
hack1798
truckster1843
hodman1849
ghost1881
devil1888
deviller1893
ghostwriter1908
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Hacks, or Hackneys, Hirelings.
1711 W. King et al. Vindic. Sacheverell 61 He is a Hack, a Tool, a Machine that must move as the Faction bid him.
a1774 O. Goldsmith Epit. E. Purdon in Poems (1790) 65 Here lies poor Ned Purdon..Who long was a bookseller's hack.
1798 J. Wolcot Tales of Hoy in Wks. (1812) IV. 424 The paper to which he was a hack.
1831 T. B. Macaulay Boswell's Life Johnson in Ess. (1887) 187 The last survivor of the genuine race of Grub Street hacks.
1866 A. Trollope Belton Estate I. ii. 49 A hard-worked, clerical hack.
1895 Times 23 Nov. 11/3 The hacks and wire-pullers on his own side in politics.
1927 Amer. Mercury Feb. 244/1 The syndicate manager..assembled together a company of hacks to turn out..daily short stories.
1987 Atlantic Mar. 69/1 On clear days he saw himself as an underpaid hack in a windowless annex of a third-rate institution.
2008 D. Nimmer Copyright Illuminated xiii. 535 Any hack who writes a screenplay..acquires a federal statutory copyright in her handiwork.
b. slang (chiefly humorous or derogatory). A journalist, a reporter, esp. a staff newspaper writer.Recorded earliest in newspaper hack n. at newspaper n. Compounds 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > journalism > journalist > [noun]
gazetteer1611
newsmaker1648
diurnalist1649
diurnaller1661
gazette-writera1678
journalist1693
journalier1714
couranteer1733
magazine-writer1787
diarian1800
hack1803
pressman1818
print journalist1965
journo1967
newsperson1973
Bigfoot1980
1803 Cobbett's Ann. Reg. 13 Aug. A misrepresentation almost unworthy of a news-paper hack.
1894 E. L. Shutman Steps into Journalism 65 One of the most prolific newspaper hacks in Chicago once remarked that he did not consider a man..a reporter unless he could make good reading out of anything.
1958 Punch 27 Aug. 265/3 No pools investor of quality would seek advice from hacks who write: Wolves have banker look.
1973 Guardian 30 June 11/3 ‘He wasn't up to much as a sub-editor,’ said one of the older hacks, sniffily.
1990 Village Voice (N.Y.) 30 Jan. 59/1 The supposedly hilarious courtship and marriage of a young radio station hack and his aunt.
2007 Lawyers Weekly (Nexis) 9 Feb. Not all journalists are conniving hacks who twist the facts to fit a story.
c. colloquial. Originally: a nightwatchman. Later: a guard; a prison or correction officer; a ‘screw’.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prisoner > [noun] > jailer
jailerc1290
prisonera1325
officer?1387
claviculer1447
javeler?c1450
key turner1606
baston1607
twistkey1617
prison keeper1623
detainer1647
prison officer1649
turnkey1655
imprisoner1656
phylacist1656
cipier1671
wardsman1683
goodman1698
prison guard1722
screw1812
dungeoner1817
dubsman1839
cell-keeper1841
prison warder1854
warder1855
dubs1882
twirl1891
hack1914
correction officer1940
the world > action or operation > safety > protection or defence > watching or keeping guard > [noun] > one who watches or keeps guard > one who watches or guards at night
night watcha1400
night-watcher1569
Jack-o'-lantern1663
nightwatchman1767
vigilante1899
hack1914
watch-night1953
1914 L. E. Jackson & C. R. Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Slang 41 Hack, a night watchman; a night policeman or marshall. Most usually it signifies the watchman of a building.
1931 Writer's Digest Oct. 28 Hack, a watchman; usually restricted to merchant policemen and differentiated from the municipal constables or police.
1955 Social Forces 1 Jan. 259/2 The correctional officer..cannot fall back on a dignity adhering to his office—he is a ‘hack’ or a ‘screw’ in the eyes of those he controls.
1973 V. Teresa & T. C. Renner My Life in Mafia i. 2 You have to stick your arm out the bars and wave it up and down until the hack in your area can see you.
1985 N. Pileggi Wiseguy 150 The hacks in the [prison's] honor dorm were almost all on the take.
2009 M. K. Stohr et al. Corrections ix. 173 If a correctional officer is viewed..as a hack..then there would appear to be little need..to provide the training and pay that would elevate such officers to ‘professional status.’
5. slang. A prostitute; (also) a procuress, a pimp. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > a prostitute
meretrixOE
whoreOE
soiled dovea1250
common womanc1330
putec1384
bordel womanc1405
putaina1425
brothelc1450
harlot?a1475
public womanc1510
naughty pack?1529
draba1533
cat1535
strange woman1535
stew1552
causey-paikera1555
putanie?1566
drivelling1570
twigger1573
punka1575
hackney1579
customer1583
commodity1591
streetwalker1591
traffic1591
trug1591
hackster1592
polecat1593
stale1593
mermaid1595
medlar1597
occupant1598
Paphian1598
Winchester goose1598
pagan1600
hell-moth1602
aunt1604
moll1604
prostitution1605
community1606
miss1606
night-worm1606
bat1607
croshabell1607
prostitute1607
pug1607
venturer1607
nag1608
curtal1611
jumbler1611
land-frigate1611
walk-street1611
doll-common1612
turn-up1612
barber's chaira1616
commonera1616
public commonera1616
trader1615
venturea1616
stewpot1616
tweak1617
carry-knave1623
prostibule1623
fling-dusta1625
mar-taila1625
night-shadea1625
waistcoateera1625
night trader1630
coolera1632
meretrician1631
painted ladya1637
treadle1638
buttock1641
night-walker1648
mob?1650
lady (also girl, etc.) of the game1651
lady of pleasure1652
trugmullion1654
fallen woman1659
girlc1662
high-flyer1663
fireship1665
quaedama1670
small girl1671
visor-mask1672
vizard-mask1672
bulker1673
marmalade-madam1674
town miss1675
town woman1675
lady of the night1677
mawks1677
fling-stink1679
Whetstone whore1684
man-leech1687
nocturnal1693
hack1699
strum1699
fille de joie1705
market-dame1706
screw1725
girl of (the) town1733
Cytherean1751
street girl1764
monnisher1765
lady of easy virtue1766
woman (also lady) of the town1766
kennel-nymph1771
chicken1782
stargazer1785
loose fish1809
receiver general1811
Cyprian1819
mollya1822
dolly-mop1834
hooker1845
charver1846
tail1846
horse-breaker1861
professional1862
flagger1865
cocodette1867
cocotte1867
queen's woman1871
common prostitute1875
joro1884
geisha1887
horizontal1888
flossy1893
moth1896
girl of the pavement1900
pross1902
prossie1902
pusher1902
split-arse mechanic1903
broad1914
shawl1922
bum1923
quiff1923
hustler1924
lady of the evening1924
prostie1926
working girl1928
prostisciutto1930
maggie1932
brass1934
brass nail1934
mud kicker1934
scupper1935
model1936
poule de luxe1937
pro1937
chromo1941
Tom1941
pan-pan1949
twopenny upright1958
scrubber1959
slack1959
yum-yum girl1960
Suzie Wong1962
mattress1964
jamette1965
ho1966
sex worker1971
pavement princess1976
parlour girl1979
crack whore1990
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > prostitution > [noun] > pimping or procuring > procurer of either sex > procuress
butcheressa1475
stew1552
bawdress1569
brokeress1582
pander1585
abbess1594
aunt1604
panderess1604
hackney womanc1616
bronstrops1617
procuress1638
provincialc1640
fruit-woman1673
flesh-broker1699
broker-woman1723
commode1725
coupleress1864
hack1864
procureuse1930
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew at Pitcher-bawd The poor Hack that runs of Errands to fetch Wenches or Liquor.
1736 N. Bailey et al. Dictionarium Britannicum (ed. 2) (at cited word) Hack..a strumpet.
1760 Mod. Honour ii. 56 The batter'd Hacks of loose Desire.
1864 Webster's Amer. Dict. Eng. Lang. Hack..a procuress.
1938 R. Torrey in Black Mask Dec. 82/2 He never makes any dough out of his hack and now he's jammed.
1977 E. Roditi Tales Turkey 111 A notorious London hack, perhaps even a superannuated male prostitute.
6.
a. Something (chiefly a piece of writing, or a spoken phrase) that is in such widespread and indiscriminate use that it has become trite, uninteresting, or commonplace; (also) trite or uninteresting written work. Cf. Compounds 1a(a). Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > behaviour > customary or habitual mode of behaviour > [noun] > usualness > that which is commonplace
staleness1617
hack1710
commonplace1802
quotidian1902
banalization1968
the mind > emotion > suffering > feeling of weariness or tedium > [noun] > tedious or dull thing or activity > trite or banal thing or activity
hack1710
banality1861
quotidian1902
cliché1934
banalization1968
1710 W. Bisset Mod. Fanatick 31 He preach'd the same Sermon, which I find has been a common Hack.
1735 W. Pardon Dyche's New Gen. Eng. Dict. Hack, any Thing that is used in common, or upon all Occasions.
1790 F. Burney Diary & Lett. (1842) V. iii. 99 Well (for that is my hack, as ‘however’ is my dear Susanna's), we set off.
1803 G. Colman John Bull iii. i. 38 You'll find [Fielding's] Tom Jones, you know.—Pshaw, that's such a hack.
1933 A. Halper Union Square i. iv. 61 His chest pained, because he was tired out from writing hack.
b. colloquial. A jaded or worn-out person, esp. someone who is past his or her prime. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1826 Mirror Lit., Amusem., & Instr. 16 Dec. 394/1 An old hack of fashion, wrinkled to her eyes, and painted like a sign-board.
1876 J. Grant One of Six Hundred i. 8 The garrison hacks, or passé belles, whose names and flirtations are standing jokes.
1967 J. T. Flexner Amer. Old Masters (rev. ed.) i. 38 The portraits he executed..are..the work not of an old hack repeating a formalism he had inherited but of a talented young man.
1971 A. Diment Think Inc. ii. 21 Every wornout hack of an agent retires there... It's the end of the rainbow for every British spy.
c. Any of various modes of transport, as a bicycle, car, etc., esp. one that is old or decrepit.
ΚΠ
1927 W. Deeping Doomsday iii. 28 Her old hack of a bicycle broke its chain half-way up the long hill.
c1949 V. Exner in P. Grist Virgil Exner, Visioneer (2007) 88 Where will we put shock absorbers in this..underslung hack?
1986 Bike Action June 58/2 (advt.) Early Moulton for sale, 4 speed, nice to ride..a good hack for everyday use.
2014 P. Wankowicz Dakota Flight i. 4 Back in the hangar, there was a single-engine Harvard, which he used as a hack for transportation.
7. Nautical. In full hack watch (also chronometer). A watch or portable chronometer which is used in place of a ship's standard chronometer when taking observations.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > instruments for measuring time > watch > [noun] > particular types of watch
German watch1611
larum watch1619
clock-watch1625
minute watch1660
pendulum watch1664
watch1666
alarm watch1669
finger watch1679
string-watch1686
scout1688
balance-watch1690
hour-watch1697
warming-pan1699
minute pendulum watch1705
jewel watch1711
suit1718
repeater1725
Tompion1727
pendulum spring1728
second-watch1755
Geneva watch1756
cylinder-watch1765
watch-paper1777
ring watch1788
verge watch1792
watch lamp1823
hack1827
bull's-eye1833
vertical watch1838
quarter-repeater1840
turnip1840
hunting-watch1843
minute repeater1843
hunter1851
job watch1851
Geneva1852
watch-lining1856
touch watch1860
musical watch1864
lever1865
neep1866
verge1871
independent seconds watch1875
stem-winder1875
demi-hunter1884
fob-watch1884
three-quarter plate1884
wrist-watch1897
turnip-watch1898
sedan-chair watch1904
Rolex1922
Tank watch1923
strap watch1926
chatelaine watch1936
sedan clock1950
quartz watch1969
pulsar1970
society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > equipment of vessel > navigational aids > [noun] > watch used in taking observations
hack1827
job watch1851
1827 R. Owen Ess. Chronometers in W. F. W. Owen Table Latitudes 10 It will be necessary to have an assistant, or hack watch, which may..be a pocket watch on the Chronometer principle.
1849 G. B. Airy in J. F. W. Herschel Man. Sci. Enq. (Lords Commissioners Admiralty) 3 If a hack-watch is used, the comparison of the hack-watch with the chronometer must be given.
1886 J. Merrifield Naut. Astron. xii. 180 The times were taken by a hack chronometer, which was slow on the standard chronometer.
1916 Amer. Pract. Navigator xvi. 178 The hack is then taken to the chart house and is used for the day's work.
1978 P. O'Brian Desolation Island ix. 223 He had only his hack-watch for his position.
2000 R. Mayne Lang. Sailing 137 Hack watch,..a small accurate timepiece, checked daily against the ship's chronometer.
Compounds
C1.
a. General attributive.
(a) Designating a word, phrase, etc., which is in common or widespread use; hackneyed, trite, commonplace.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > feeling of weariness or tedium > [adjective] > wearisome or tedious > trite or banal
quotidian1430
trite1548
protrite1604
obvious1617
unbravea1681
prosaical1699
tritical1709
prosaic1729
hack1759
unstrikinga1774
commonplace1801
prosy1837
banal1840
mundane1850
unsensational1854
bromidic1906
corn-fed1929
corn-ball1970
the world > action or operation > behaviour > customary or habitual mode of behaviour > [adjective] > usual or ordinary > commonplace
quotidian1430
trite1548
beaten1587
trivial1589
threadbare1598
protrite1604
prose1606
commonplace1616
everyday1628
prostitute1631
prosaical1699
tritical1709
prosaic1729
tritish1779
hack1821
rum-ti-tum1832
unspecial1838
banal1840
commonplacish1847
prosy1849
inventionless1887
thread-worn1888
1759 Intriguing Coxcomb I. ii. 26 The hack words of the day any how brought in, form the whole frivolous fund of the chit-chat.
1781 F. Burney Early Jrnls. & Lett. (2003) IV. 395 This, indeed, is now become our hack speech to Mr. Crutchley.
1821 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto IV xvii. 79 When the old world grows dull, And we are sick of its hack sounds and sights.
1862 J. Skelton Nugæ Criticæ iii. 156 The hack language on this subject is exceedingly injurious.
1968 P. Fox I'm Glad I was Analysed 62 The hack phrase ‘he married his mother’, ‘she married her father’ have, like most hack phrases, a ring of truth.
1992 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 16 Aug. 3/3 He could not forget..what happens to a writer who tries to abandon his successful hack formula and write a Good Book.
2009 Time Out N.Y. 18 June 66/2 You mock hack comedy—and then deliver it.
(b) With the sense ‘of or relating to a vehicle kept for hire' (see sense 3).
ΚΠ
1812 Boston Gaz. 10 Sept. (advt.) Hack Stand.
1823 National Advocate (N.Y.) 21 Jan. Total of receipts by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund... For Water Lot Rents, $14,243 50;..Hack Licenses, 4,749,00.
1889 A. C. Gunter That Frenchman! xiii. 165 Near a hack-stand..he tells his assistant to jump out.
1933 P. Cain Fast One i. 29 You're a swell driver, Jakie. You should've stayed in the hack racket back in Brooklyn.
1970 J. Finney Time & Again (1974) xiii. 186 But now I sketched..a carriage, a waiting hack-line of two-wheeled hansoms at the Broadway corner.
2000 K. Friedman Mile High Club ii. 22 I found myself walking the chilly sidewalk toward the hack stand.
2010 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 10 June a24/1 He had a commercial driver's license and a hack license.
(c) With the sense ‘of, relating to, or carried out by a hired writer’ (see sense 4a).
ΚΠ
1868 J. H. Blunt Reformation Church of Eng. I. 356 Vilifying with their hack pens.
1883 Cent. Mag. 26 285 I do more or less work of a hack kind for the magazines.
1901 D. Cockerell Bookbinding Pref. 9 Happy careers may be found..far removed from the dreary routine of hack labour.
1993 H. R. Greenberg Screen Memories viii. 199 A McMovie screenplay is a hack effort—more often than not..the cruder version of an already flawed narrative.
2006 P. Waller Writers Readers Reputations 134 Caine became a reviewer of the hack kind.
b. Objective.
hack driver n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > transport by vehicles plying for hire > [noun] > driving or hiring of cabs > driver of hired cab > of hackney-coach or cab
hackney coachman1623
hack1662
hack driver1709
hackman1796
jarvey1820
cab1850
1709 C. Cibber Rival Fools v. 59 I'll be bound to be a Hack-Driver as long as I live.
1835 Jrnl. 15 July in Southern Lit. Messenger (1838) 197/1 My hack-driver..assured [me] that there was no other tavern in the city.
1934 R. Chandler in Black Mask Oct. 16/2 I'm a hack driver... I brought a fare out and was supposed to wait for him.
2014 R. D. Elms Dreams of Gold 408 Brady..waved to a hack driver waiting for paying passengers.
hack rider n.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > transport > riding on horse (or other animal) > rider > [noun] > on hack
hack rider1881
1881 Encycl. Brit. XII. 196/2 Galloping is a pace not generally indulged in by hack riders.
1947 Pop. Photogr. July 145/1 The cowboys set off for the really rugged country, while we hack riders are left to hold the herd.
2010 A. Hart Whirlwind xxii. 255 You'd continue to be a hack rider living at a run-down farm.
c. Appositive.
(a) In sense 4a, as hack author, hack reviewer, hack journalist, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > writer or author > [noun] > hack
hack writer1711
garreteer1720
hack authora1734
hack1798
truckster1843
hodman1849
ghost1881
devil1888
deviller1893
ghostwriter1908
a1734 R. North Examen (1740) iii. vii. §52 541 And so on to the Hack-Runners and Writers.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones IV. x. ix. 84 Unluckily, a few Miles before she entered that Town, she met the Hack -Attorney. View more context for this quotation
1792 G. Wakefield Mem. 97 Hack preachers employed in the service of defaulters and absentees.
1859 B. D'Israeli in I. D'Israeli Quarrels Auth. in Wks. V. 282 A hack author for the booksellers.
1878 J. Morley Carlyle 190 The hack moralist of the pulpit or the press.
1934 D. Thomas Let. c3 July (1987) 149 What a life is the life of a hack reviewer.
1989 ‘C. Roman’ Foreplay iv. 37 Ketch O'Connell, the local hack-hustler and cutup, cut off from his peers by intrigue and petty larceny.
2009 New Yorker 5 Jan. 39/1 The Village also suffered the same victimization at the hands of what Vian called..the hack journalists.
(b) In sense 1, as hack horse, hack mare, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > equus caballus or horse > [noun] > inferior or old and worn-out
brockc1000
stota1100
jadec1386
yaud?a1513
roila1529
tit1548
hilding1590
tireling1590
dog horsec1600
baffle1639
Rosinante1641
aver1691
keffel1699
runt1725
hack horse1760
rip1775
kadisha1817
dunghill1833
pelter1854
crow-bait1857
caster1859
plug1860
knacker1864
plug horse1872
crock1879
skate1894
robbo1897
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > hired or for hire
hackneyc1400
hackney horse1473
job1740
job horse1748
hack horse1760
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > for riding
road horseOE
hackney1299
rouncyc1300
mounturec1400
hackney horse1473
steed1597
Galloway1598
roussin1602
naggon1630
saddle horse1647
sit-horse?1652
rider1698
saddle mare1707
hack1737
hack horse1760
ride1787
Bucephalus1799
steed-horse1842
mount1856
saddler1888
saddle seat1895
1760 Voy. & Cruises Commodore Walker I. ii. i. 113 Having in the mean time secured all the hack-horses in the town.
1816 Sporting Mag. 48 239 A fall of 50l. per cent…in nag and hack horses.
1834 A. W. Fonblanque Eng. under Seven Admin. (1837) III. 163 The journey..was no more to be accomplished..with his own horses, so he took hack-posters.
1839 C. Dickens Nicholas Nickleby xiii. 113 Here's the pony run right off his legs, and me obliged to come home with a hack cob.
1904 Live Stock Jrnl. 19 Feb. 177/3 I do remember..hearing many years ago of a hack mare, who, after losing both hoofs in front, grew another pair.
2009 J. Zurell Once upon Horse 235 You wouldn't want him for a hack horse anyway, he's pretty hyper.
(c) In sense 3, as hack cab, hack coach, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > vehicles (plying) for hire > [noun] > hackney carriage > specific types of hackney carriage
noddy?1764
hack1769
Patent Safety1835
Patent Safety Cab1836
hansom cab1847
cab car1853
shoful1853
growler1865
midge1865
1769 S. Gunning Cottage III. xxi. 2 In a hack chaise, at the hour I mentioned, I sat out, attended only by William.
1813 J. Austen Pride & Prejudice I. v. 39 Mrs. Long..had come to the ball in a hack chaise. View more context for this quotation
1838 C. Dickens Oliver Twist I. xxvi. 101 He called a hack-cabriolet.
1851 London at Table i. 31 I..started in a hack cab for the scene of action.
1856 Illustr. London News 2 Feb. 126/2 A hack brougham for morning calls.
1906 City Rec. (New York) 17 Nov. 10562/1 For each public hack coach 3.00.
2009 G. Strand Inventing Niagara 80 There were drivers of hack cabs who took kickbacks for delivering passengers to certain attractions.
C2.
hack pack n. a pack of journalists and photographers gathered in one place to pursue the same news story, esp. in a predatory or aggressive manner.
ΚΠ
1974 Chicago Defender 24 June 10 A confrontation between the internationally famous Globetrotters and the Hack Pack Team, consisting of 40 TV editors attending CBS's Press Conference.
1987 Herald (Melbourne) (Nexis) 13 July John Howard had struggled through the hack-pack into the conference hall to concede defeat.
1992 J. Burchill in Mod. Rev. Summer 4/2 ‘You won't need me, now you've got Fergie,’ she teased a hack pack after the Yorks' marriage.
2015 Times of India (Nexis) 14 Apr. The hack pack revved up vehicles to chase her [sc. Hillary Clinton] down.
hack writer n. a person who hires himself or herself out to do any kind of literary work; (hence) a writer producing dull, unoriginal work, esp. to order.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > writer or author > [noun] > hack
hack writer1711
garreteer1720
hack authora1734
hack1798
truckster1843
hodman1849
ghost1881
devil1888
deviller1893
ghostwriter1908
1711 W. Oldisworth Reasons for Restoring Whigs 31 Let any of the Hack-Writers among the Tories tell me, whether they ought not to be restored to Power?
1826 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 20 296/2 You forget the effrontery of the hack-writer in the shamefacedness of the would-be gentleman.
2003 Washington Opera Mag. Aug. 9/1 Their corps of lackeys was led by sycophantic flacks and hack writers.
hack writing n. writing carried out by a hired writer or done to order; (hence) dull, unoriginal writing.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > art or occupation of writer or author > [noun] > action or practice of composing > hack-writing
hackwork1824
hack writing1832
devilling1867
manufacturing1893
ghosting1903
ghostwriting1927
1832 Brit. Critic July 62 In these days of hack writing..it is absolutely refreshing to meet with an author who evidently renders us the fruits of patient and careful study.
1933 E. Pound Let. 24 Sept. (1971) 247 Teaching damn sight easier way of earning living than hackwriting.
2013 Age (Melbourne) (Nexis) 31 Jan. 4 Schtick has such negative connotations—it's like the word ‘hack’. You don't do hack writing, and I don't do schtick.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
hackn.3
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ Falconry.
Formerly: †a board on which a hawk's food is placed (obsolete). Hence: the state of partial liberty in which a young hawk is kept before training, during which the bird is discouraged from hunting by being provided with food, but is allowed to fly freely. Frequently in (to fly or be) at hack: (to be) in this state.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > hunting > hawking > falconry or hawking equipment > [noun] > board for food
hack1575
1575 G. Turberville Bk. Faulconrie 175 To conuey in the deuise whereon their meate is serued, called amongst Falconers, the Hacke.
1686 R. Blome Gentlemans Recreation ii. ii. 28/1 Another Eyess..is also taken out of the Nest, but bred up at Hack, that is, by bringing her up, and to let her fly at pleasure, observing a certain place to feed her at.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Hawking The Place where her Meat is laid, is call'd the Hack.
1826 J. S. Sebright Observ. Hawking 29 Falcons that had flown long at hack, and preyed frequently for themselves before they were taken up.
1852 R. F. Burton Falconry in Valley of Indus iv. 43 As soon as they begin to fly strongly they must be taken from hack.
1904 Country Life Sept. 374/2 The period of ‘hack’ is prolonged as much as the trainer judges to be safe.
1929 Encycl. Brit. IX. 45/2 As soon as a young hawk fails to return to the hack for its meal a note should be made of its absence.
2006 R. Kenward Goshawk ix. 263 Radio-tags are a huge benefit in falconry, making it much safer than in the past to fly raptors..at hack.
Compounds
hack bell n. Falconry a bell attached to the leg of a hawk, used to locate the bird or to hinder it from catching prey.
ΚΠ
1855 F. H. Salvin & W. Brodrick Falconry in Brit. Isles 134 Hack-bells, large heavy bells put on to young Hawks to prevent them from preying for themselves whilst at liberty.
1904 Country Life Sept. 374/2 She [sc. the eyess] wears jesses at her legs and a big hack-bell on one or both ankles.
2006 H. Macdonald Falcon iii. 86 (caption) This..drawing by Pisanello shows a young falcon wearing a braceless hood and extra-large hack bells.
hack board n. a board or platform on which food is placed for a hawk at hack (see sense main sense).
ΚΠ
1873 F. H. Salvin & W. Brodrick Falconry in Brit. Isles (ed. 2) 150 Hack-board, a platform upon which Hawks at hack are fed.
1892 G. Lascelles Falconry in H. Cox & G. Lascelles Coursing & Falconry (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) ii. 240 As soon as the young hawks have..returned to feed at evening on the hack-board.
2009 T. Hunt Three Anglo-Norman Treat. Falconry 14 Eyas falcons are kept for a few weeks before being trained, coming daily to feed on the hack board.
hack hawk n. a hawk which is kept at hack (see sense main sense).
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Falconiformes (falcons, etc.) > family Accipitridae (hawks, etc.) > [noun] > unspecified and miscellaneous types of
villain1481
Lentiner1575
make-falcon1575
make-hawk1575
bockerel1653
waskite1655
hack hawk1686
bawrel1706
buzzardet1785
nankeen hawk1827
buteo1848
rook hawk1855
kite-eagle1883
star buzzard1884
1686 R. Blome Gentlemans Recreation ii. 62 Hack Hawk, is a Tackler.
1826 J. S. Sebright Observ. Hawking 9 Small leaden bells are sometimes attached to hawk's legs, to prevent them from preying for themselves... When thus kept, they are termed hack hawks.
1911 Eng. Illustr. Mag. Sept. 541/1 As soon as the hack hawk begins to hunt for itself it must be attached by the leash.
1999 J. Loft Merlin for Me 130 When the time comes for hack to be brought to an end, the hack-hawks may be tame enough to step to the fist.
hack place n. a place (usually in open countryside) in which young hawks are allowed to fly at hack (see sense main sense).
ΚΠ
1881 Macmillan's Mag. Nov. 39 The ‘hack’ place..is an open spot..where the youngsters will be left at complete liberty for the next few weeks. An open moor or large common serves the purpose admirably.
1936 G. Blaine Falconry iv. 53 As soon as a hawk is observed to have absented itself from the hack place at feeding time..it should be caught up.
1993 W. Bednarek in M. K. Nicholls & R. Clarke Biol. & Conservation Small Falcons 208/2 A young female, that left the ‘hack-place’ in August, established a ‘home-range’ 30 km away for 14 days.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
hackn.4
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ 1. Chiefly Scottish. A rack to hold fodder for cattle or other animals (now rare). Frequently figurative in †to live at hack and manger: to live in plenty, to live the good life (obsolete).Cf. heck n.1 3, hake n.3 2, hatch n.1 4. Cf. also rack n.4 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > providing or receiving food > feeding animals > [noun] > fodder rack
cribOE
hatchlOE
cratch?c1225
rack1343
mangerc1350
heckc1420
hake1551
stand heck1570
hack1612
meat rack1744
hay-rack1825
1612 Inventorye of G. Beswick 1 Oct. in P. C. D. Brears Yorks. Probate Inventories 1542–1689 (1972) 71 Item in the stable and oxen house a servant bedd hacke & manger.
1673 J. Ray N. Countrey Words in Coll. Eng. Words 23 A Hack, Lincolns,..Fæni conditorium, seu Præsepe cancellatum signat; a Rack.
1753 W. Maitland Hist. Edinb. i. i. 13/1 Furnish their Stables with Hack and Manger.
1795 in J. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Perth (1799) 543 A small hack full of fine hay.
1818 S. E. Ferrier Marriage II. ii. 20 The servants at Lochmarlie must be living at hack and manger.
1825 W. Scott Jrnl. 9 Dec. (1939) 36 [She] lived with half the gay world at hack and manger.
1845 H. Beveridge tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. II. viii. 277 Refractory horses,..if kept idle for a few days at hack and manger, become ungovernable.
1906 Atlantic Monthly May 656/1 The wiles of an impecunious traveler who succeeds in living at hack and manger.
1975 J. Y. Mather & H. H. Speitel Ling. Atlas Scotl. I. 255 Hay rack (in byre, etc.), [Stirling, Lanark, Northumberland]Hack, [Kirkcudbright] Hay hack.
2. A row of moulded bricks stacked to dry in the open air before firing. Also (usually in plural): a levelled and slightly raised bank of earth on which bricks are dried in this way. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > brick-making equipment > [noun] > drying frame
hack1703
hake1840
1703 R. Neve City & Countrey Purchaser 42 The Hacks (or Places where they Row them [sc. Bricks] up..with some small Intervals betwixt them, to admit the Wind and Air to dry them).
1808 Repertory Arts, Manuf., & Agric. Mar. 290 Over them sand is thrown..to prevent in a certain degree their cracking in drying while on the hacks.
1873 F. Robertson Engin. Notes 27 He..wheels them [sc. the bricks] down to the hacks which should be between the moulding shed and kiln.
1896 Chambers's Jrnl. 13 23/1 The stacking of the bricks in long rows or hacks, about five or six bricks high.
1906 A. B. Searle Clayworker's Hand-bk. v. 129 It is often convenient to dig small trenches.., and to use the soil so turned up for the foundation of the hack itself.
1966 W. G. Nash Brickwork I. i. 25 Storing them [sc. bricks] in the open air in long rows called drying hacks.
2006 R. Shill Workshop of World xii. 132 The moulded bricks were then carefully stacked in a hack to dry for several days.
ΚΠ
1742 in J. G. Burnett Powis Papers (1951) 277 A Skull and fish Hack.
1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Hack, a wooden frame, suspended from the roof, containing different shelves, for drying cheeses.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products Hack, a frame suspended from the roof for drying cheeses;..a framework for drying fish.
Compounds
hack barrow n. now historical a long, flat wheelbarrow used to carry newly moulded bricks to the hacks (see sense 2).
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > brick-making equipment > [noun] > barrow
hack barrow1850
1850 E. Dobson Rudimentary Treat. Manuf. Bricks & Tiles 28 Each brick..is turned out on a pallet, and placed by a boy on a hack barrow, which, when loaded, is wheeled away.
1984 J. Seymour Forgotten Arts (1985) 150 (caption) The traditional brickmaker's hack barrow is sideless, for easy loading, and carries as many bricks as the brickmaker himself can comfortably lift.
2011 B. Clark Hist. Murston 45 The barrow loader..took three bricks at a time and placed them onto the hack barrow.
ΚΠ
1843 Mechanics' Mag. 9 Sept. 189/2 The price of the ordinary hack-caps made of straw was fourpence each.
1910 Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts 58 866/1 The bricks, during the drying, are protected from the weather by wooden roofs—termed hack caps.
1918 Brick & Pottery Trades Diary & Year Bk. 7/1 (advt.) H. Blacknell..Manufacturer of Hack Caps, Lewe Boards,..Ridge Tile Racks, etc.
hack plank n. now historical and rare a plank or board on which bricks are laid to dry after moulding.
ΚΠ
1875 Sci. Amer. 17 July 31 The hack planks are board platforms constructed of three longitudinal boards.
1882 Standard 16 Sept. 8/2 Brickmakers' plant and stock, comprising a large quantity of hack caps, hack planks.
1968 N.Y. Folklore Q. 24 12 A ‘third’ of brick..had to be picked up, or ‘hacked’, when dry, onto a three-inch by ten-inch hack plank.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
† hackn.5
Obsolete. rare.
The roofing on a beehive; = hackle n.1 3a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > bee-keeping > [noun] > beehive > parts of
moutha1398
stool?1523
skirt1555
hackle1609
smoot1615
imp1618
bolster1623
cop1623
underlaya1642
hack1658
tee-hole1669
frame1673
hood1686
alighting board1780
body box1823
superhive1847
super1855
quilt1870
queen excluder1881
bar-super1884
brood box1888
1658 J. Evelyn tr. N. de Bonnefons French Gardiner 100 Like the cover or hack of a Bee-hive [Fr. la couuerture d'vne Rusche].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online June 2018).
hackn.6
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ rare.
A flax-comb. Cf. hackle n.2 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > treating or processing textile materials > treating or processing flax, hemp, or jute > [noun] > heckling > implement for
hatchelc1300
hecklea1425
hacklec1485
hetch1598
flax-comb1611
hack1658
gill1819
flax-hackle1825
rougher1828
ruffer1853
1658 tr. G. della Porta Nat. Magick iv. xxv. 156 [Flax] kemmed with hackes [L. ferreis hamis], till all the membrans be pilled clean.
2010 Z. E. Cherif et al. in C. Binetruy & F. Boussu Recent Adv. in Textile Composites 556 Hacking consists of carding the bout of fibers in a succession of increasingly fine hacks (sort of comb).
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
hackn.7
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ colloquial or slang (originally and chiefly U.S.).
Confinement; restriction of liberty; (Navy) the punishment of being confined to quarters or on board ship. Chiefly in in hack, under hack: under the control of another person; under arrest or restraint; incarcerated.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > restraint or restraining > restraint depriving of liberty > confinement > [noun]
prisonOE
bonda1225
beclosing?c1225
narrowth?c1225
holdc1330
banda1400
festinance1426
duressc1430
enclosingc1440
closeness1530
durancea1535
closure1592
reclusedness1613
confinement1646
immurement1736
immuration1895
hack1899
prisonment1900
lockdown1973
1899 N.Y. Times 10 Apr. 8 A man once said to me of a hospital nurse.., ‘She had my whole family under hack, from my wife down to the cat.’
1925 Scribner's Mag. Feb. 194/2 When he arrived on board, poor Tom was placed under hack for three days.
1951 H. Wouk Caine Mutiny (1952) ii. x. 113 I'm putting you in hack for three days.
1982 Ploughshares 8 129 Mrs Holmes..has old ‘Lucien dear’ quite under hack.
2001 S. King Dreamcatcher xiii. 422 You're not gonna get me in hack over this, are you? Send me to see the shrink?
2003 L. Estleman Poison Blonde xvi. 117 She's under hack for murder.
2010 D. Sears Such Men as These ix. 185 ‘CAG has all VF-53 and -54 pilots in hack.’..‘The hack is lifted,’ Marsh told them. ‘You're free to go ashore.’
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
hackv.1
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ I. In senses related to chopping, cutting, or striking.† 3. transitive. Chiefly Scottish. Of frost, cold, or rough work: to chap or crack (the hands, face, etc.). Also intransitive: (of the hands, face, etc.) to become chapped or cracked. Cf. hacked adj. 1b. Obsolete.
1. † c. transitive and intransitive. Music. To break up (a note) into a number of smaller notes. Perhaps cf. hocket n. 3. Obsolete.† d. transitive. To mangle or mix up (words, language, etc.) when speaking; to work (one's way) through an utterance in this manner. Also occasionally intransitive. Obsolete.The identity of hawk in quot. a1555 is uncertain.
a. transitive. To cut or chop with heavy blows in an irregular or random fashion; to mangle or mutilate, esp. with jagged cuts, so as to damage or destroy. Also (esp. in earlier use): to cut or chop up or into pieces, to chop off. Also with about, away, down, etc.In quot. 1598 in passive: to be cut into notches.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > cutting > cut [verb (transitive)] > cut roughly in order to damage
hacka1200
mangle1528
hackle1564
behack1565
to rip up1567
to cut upa1592
hash1591
bemangle1601
hagglea1616
hacker1807
snag1811
butch1834
a1200 MS Trin. Cambr. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1873) 2nd Ser. 139 A maiden bad te kinge his heued, and he hit bad of acken.
?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 220 Hahackede of his heaued.
c1325 (c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Calig.) 4422 Is foule caroyne he broȝte & riȝt þer bi pecemele hakked it al to noȝte.
c1405 (c1385) G. Chaucer Knight's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 2001 He..leet anoon comaunde to hakke and hewe The okes olde.
?c1425 Recipe in Coll. Ordinances Royal Househ. (Arun. 334) (1790) 440 Sethe hom, and hak hom smal.
c1500 Debate Carpenter's Tools in Rev. Eng. Stud. (1987) 38 461 Smale strokys late vs hake.
1571 in J. T. Fowler Memorials Church SS. Peter & Wilfrid, Ripon (1882) I. 308 Did cut and hacke away certane pipes of leade.
1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 ii. v. 168 My sworde hackt like a handsaw. View more context for this quotation
1653 H. Cogan tr. F. M. Pinto Voy. & Adventures 212 Causing them to be hacked very small.
1670 J. Smith England's Improvem. Reviv'd v. 188 You shall then pare or hack up all the green swarth.
1677 S. Lee Ἐλεοθρίαμβος x. 126 He principally labours..to hack down that cursed thorn and stub it up by the Roots.
a1716 R. South Serm. Several Occasions (1744) X. 248 That man who could stand and see another stripped or hacked in pieces by a thief or a rogue.
1816 Burke's Speech Impeachm. W. Hastings, 16 Feb. 1788 in Speeches IV. 345 The tyrant..cut, and hacked the limbs of British subjects in the most cruel..manner.
a1859 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. (1861) V. xxiv. 134 Such a partition as is effected by hacking a living man limb from limb.
1886 J. H. Overton Evangelical Revival 18th Cent. viii. 152 Buildings..hacked about to suit the taste of the last century.
1914 Times of India 4 Dec. 9/3 The assassin..stabbed and hacked every man he met in his way.
1974 A. Ortiz in J. Billard World of Amer. Indian 191 They hacked off the plant's huge crowns, then, digging a cooking pit in the rocky soil, roasted them.
2006 Total Film Feb. 124/3 She mopes around a beach, he chucks lit fags into the grass, hacks down trees.
b. intransitive. To make rough or random cuts; to deliver cutting blows. Also with at, †through, †upon, etc.Also figurative in early use; in quot. c1400 with after: to keep working at; in quot. a1450 with upon: to keep thinking about.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > cutting > cut [verb (transitive)] > cut through
shearOE
hacka1325
through-carvec1330
through-cutc1330
detrench1398
rivea1400
trench1483
cross-cut1590
rescind1598
transect1634
the world > action or operation > endeavour > attempt [verb (transitive)] > strive for or after
tilla900
strivea1300
aswinkc1300
ofswinkc1300
forstrivec1315
beswink1377
to follow after ——c1390
hacka1450
ontilla1450
prosecutea1530
to scratch for1581
ettle1592
push1595
a1325 (c1300) Chron. P. de Langtoft (Cambr.) (1839) 323 (MED) It falles in his eghe, That hackes ovre heghe.
c1390 (?c1350) Joseph of Arimathie (1871) l. 512 (MED) Þo þat hulden hem on fote hakken þorw scholdres.
a1400 Siege Jerusalem (Laud) (1932) l. 1121 (MED) [They] Hacchen [a1450 Lamb. hewen] vpon hard steel with an herty wylle.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xix. l. 399 Þat is my kynde, And nouȝte hakke [C text c1400 Huntington HM 137 to hacke, a1425 Huntington HM 143 hacky] after holynesse.
a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1881) ii. l. 1381 Whan þat þe sturdy ok On which men hakketh ofte..Receyued hath þe happy fallyng strok.
a1450 (c1412) T. Hoccleve De Regimine Principum (Harl. 4866) (1897) l. 929 (MED) Vp-on þis woful thoght I hakke & hewe.
1508 Golagros & Gawane (Chepman & Myllar) sig. cv He..Hakkit throw the hard weid to the hede hynt.
1587 J. Hooker Chron. Ireland 149/1 in Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) II Two or three hacked vpon him, & gaue him such deadlie wounds that he fell downe and died.
1645 T. Shepard Sound Beleever 4 Oh adulterous generation that are thus hacking at and cutting the cords of their owne salvation!
1682 J. Metford Gen. Disc. Simony 116 Hacking at part of the Branches, Boughs, Sprouts, Roots or Leaves of that monstrous ugly, and hideous Tree Avaritia.
1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 149 I was twenty Days hacking and hewing at it.
1842 J. Wilson Water Cure 126 The workman is on his knees, or sitting, while he is hacking away in his hole.
1891 W. Archer tr. A. L. Kielland Tales of Two Countries 51 They hacked with their axes..they dug and hauled, and at last they actually got the huge stem turned over.
1947 H. Innes Lonely Skier viii. 156 Engles and Keramikos were hacking away at the concrete flooring with pick and hammer.
1986 C. Phillips State of Independence 122 They hacked at the crop, looking like slaves of old.
2011 D. Fairley Dansal Peak xiii. 193 He was slashing and hacking wildly, and she smiled as she blocked the blows with ease.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > duration of notes > proportion of notes or rhythm > [verb (transitive)] > break up a note
hackc1450
crotchet1587
c1450 in R. L. Greene Early Eng. Carols (1935) 309 (MED) Jankyn crakit notes, an hunderid on a knot, And yyt he hakkyt hem smallere than wortes to the pot.
a1500 (a1460) Towneley Plays (1994) I. xiii. 146 Will ye here how thay hak? Oure syre lyst croyne.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > defective or inarticulate speech > utter inarticulately [verb (transitive)]
misspeaka1393
hack1570
a1555 H. Latimer in J. Strype Eccl. Memorials (1822) II. i. v. 49 [He would] so hawk it [sc. a homily], and chop it..that it were as good for them to be without it.]
1570 T. Wilson Life Demosthenes in tr. Demosthenes 3 Orations 110 Hacking and parting his sentences in such sort, that he was altogither thought confused and superfluous.
1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. xxxviii. xiv. 991 Hacking and hewing his words, as if hee had not been able to speake them out.
1602 W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor iii. i. 72 Let them keep their limbs hole, and hack our English.
1750 T. Edwards Canons Crit. (ed. 3) vi. 38 Shakespeare neither uses French words so needlessly, nor does he hack and mangle his words at this rate.
1787 P. H. Maty tr. J. K. Riesbeck Trav. Germany II. xliv. 197 Mangled the language, hacked the words with Tartar fury.
1840 J. H. Frere tr. Aristophanes Birds 19 Mangle, mince and mash, Confound and hack, and jumble things together!
1906 M. Cunliffe-Owen Gray Mist xviii. 258 He..continued hacking his words as if each separate one blistered his tongue.
e. intransitive and transitive. To massage a part of the body by striking with the side of the hand, using alternate hands in rapid succession.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > physiotherapy > practise physiotherapy [verb (transitive)] > massage > with specific movement
knead1609
hack1866
percute1867
full1868
percussion1887
pétrie1887
1866 Chicago Med. Jrnl. 23 549 The movements..consist in rub-rings..; spatting the muscles with the palm of the hand, or..hacking rapidly over the muscles with the edge of the hand.
1887 W. Mendelson tr. J. Schreiber Man.Treatm. by Massage & Methodical Exercise v. 147 The muscles to be hacked must, of course, be in a state of relaxation.
1921 M. L. Dobbie tr. E. A. G. Kleen et al. Massage & Med. Gymnastics i. 40 Each side of the back is hacked separately.
1997 M. Mercati Handbk. Chinese Massage vii. 121 (caption) Using both hands separately, hack lightly over the entire abdominal area with the fingers loosely apart.
2000 S.V. Govindan Ayurvedic Massage for Health & Healing (2006) ii. 71 Knead, petrissage, hack, and clap the gluteal region.
2. Agriculture.† b. transitive. To hoe or plough up (soil) into ridges. Cf. hack n.1 5. Obsolete.
a. transitive. To break up (soil, the ground, etc.), esp. as part of the process of cultivation; to hoe or dig in (seed). Also: to harvest (peas, etc.) by chopping or cutting up the plant by the roots.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > break up land [verb (transitive)] > dig
delvec888
to dig up1377
diga1425
pastine?1440
updelvec1440
upstockc1440
hack1620
pastinate1623
repastinate1623
spit1648
spittle1727
spud1828
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > cultivation of plants or crops > harvesting > harvest (a crop) [verb (transitive)] > reap or mow a crop
moweOE
reapeOE
cutc1300
sheara1325
barb1652
demess1657
hack1681
1620 G. Markham Farwell to Husbandry ii. 11 When you haue thus hackt all your ground, and broke in peices all hard crust and toughnesse of the swarth.
1660 R. Sharrock Hist. Propagation & Improvem. Veg. 23 Drawing trenches in the soyle, and then drawing the earth over them with a hoe..and hacking in the seed with the same instrument.
1681 J. Worlidge Dictionarium Rusticum in Systema Agriculturæ (ed. 3) 326 To Hack, that is to cut up Pease or other haw[m]y stuff by the Roots, or to cut nimbly any thing.
1765 Gentleman's Mag. Jan. 14/2 It is best to hack peas in small wads.
1794 J. Billingsley Gen. View Agric. Somerset 72 A few farmers previous to this sowing, have lately adopted the plan of hacking the surface.
1808 C. Vancouver Gen. View Agric. Devon vii. 141 The wheat sown nine or ten pecks to the acre, and hacked in.
1866 J. E. T. Rogers Hist. Agric. & Prices I. xxi. 541 It does not seem that the scythe was used for harvest-works, except..for hacking peas.
1912 B. T. Washington Man Farthest Down (1913) 107 With these heavy instruments some of the women seemed to be hacking the soil, apparently preparing it for cultivation.
2002 G. Brown Texas Gulag xviii. 132 They would hack the dirt and pulverize it. This aerated the soil and cleared weeds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > break up land [verb (transitive)] > hoe
billc1440
paddle1556
sarculate1623
hoe1712
hack1732
hand-hoe1733
hoe-plough1733
scuffle1766
small-hoe1786
shim1797
horse-hoe1830
nidget1843
first1860
prong-hoe1892
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > breaking up land > ploughing > plough (land) [verb (transitive)]
eareOE
till1377
plough1423
break1499
sheugh1513
ayrec1540
to break up1557
furrow1576
spit1648
whelm1652
manage1655
hack1732
thorough1733
to plough in1764
rout1836
1732 W. Ellis Pract. Farmer 45 The Farmer mowed his Trefoil for Seed, then ploughed it,..after that hack'd or comb'd it.
1801 Trans. Dublin Soc. 1800 2 i. 436 One of my grass-fields..was ploughed into beds, about five or six feet wide; in October it was hacked, and in that state it was left to receive the benefit of the air.
c. transitive. To rake (hay) into rows. English regional in later use.
ΚΠ
1808 T. Batchelor Gen. View Agric. County of Bedford 429 Spread the swarths about the ground, and afterwards hack it into small rows with rakes, in the usual mode of making meadow hay.
1848 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 9 i. 21 [The grass] is ‘hacked’ into small rows, the hay-makers following each other.
1881 S. Evans Evans's Leicestershire Words (new ed.) at Hay The grass..is next hacked or chopped with a quick action of the rake into windrows.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > injury > injure [verb (transitive)] > chap or crack
hack1673
kin1825
1673 J. Ray Observ. Journey Low-countries 417 Our faces were hackt and burnt..by the Cold.
a1779 D. Graham Coll. Writings (1883) II. 148 To plout her hands through Hawkey's caff-cog, is a hateful hardship for Mammy's Pet, and will hack a' her hands.
1870 J. K. Hunter Life Stud. Char. iv. 29 A hushion..used to be worn..to keep their legs frae hacking—what refinement calls chapping or gelling.
1887 J. Service Life Dr. Duguid xxiv. 161 There's nae frost to hack them [sc. the hands] in the simmer time.
4.
a. transitive. To make (one's way, a path) through a place, out of a situation, etc., by chopping and cutting with rough heavy blows; (in passive, of a path or route) to be so made. Also figurative and in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > movement over, across, through, or past > [verb (transitive)] > through or over obstacles > by cutting
carve1490
to carve outa1616
hack1781
fray1849
1781 Field of Mars II. at Vigo Being becalmed, they all stuck, and were obliged to hack and cut their way through.
1859 Leisure Hour 24 Nov. 739/1 The dense..tropical bush through which we hewed and hacked our way.
1967 A. J. Toynbee Between Maule & Amazon 98 The only means of access from the outer world was to hack one's way with a machete through hundreds of miles of jungle.
1989 C. Jacobi East of Samarinda 210 He had hacked his way out of the flimsy Bandjermasin jail.
1998 S. B. Vickers Native Amer. Architect. 117/2 An inconspicuous path hacked through the surrounding underbrush.
2005 H. Mantel Beyond Black xi. 357 In the ‘family area’ a bunch of low-rent diners would be grimly hacking their way through honey-basted chicken kebabs.
b. intransitive. With through. To work one's way through an impediment, place, etc., by chopping and cutting with rough heavy blows.
ΚΠ
1820 T. Hamilton tr. Antar IV. xxxv. 251 He fought with the fiercest resolution; he hacked through the armies.
1856 C. Reade Never Too Late to Mend xxii. 121 They seamed the face of Nature for miles;..hacked through the crops [of rock].
1906 Illustr. Sporting & Dramatic News 15 Sept. 100/1 They climbed the narrow track, hacked through the thick bush.
2001 Archaeology Mar. 48/1 Ruthless slave hunters..who hacked through jungle to bring tens of thousands of shackled Indians to the slave market.
5. transitive. To dress or prepare (stone, concrete, etc.) with a hack-hammer or similar tool; spec. to roughen or notch (a grindstone) before use. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > unevenness > make uneven [verb (transitive)] > make rough > specifically a grindstone
hack1850
1850 C. Holtzapffel Turning & Mech. Manip. III. 1109 When the stone has stopped, the grinder hacks or notches the high places denoted by the marks, by means of a tool called a ‘hack hammer’.
1865 Children's Employm. Comm. (1862): 4th Rep. p. vii, in Parl. Papers XX. 103 The grinder..is exposed to the danger of inhaling air loaded with fine dust, both while ‘razing,’ i.e., preparing, and ‘hacking’ the grindstone.
1915 Machinery's Handbk. (ed. 5) 967 The large, rapidly revolving stones..are hacked around the periphery to make them cut faster.
1930 J. Q. Cannon Standards & Specif. for Nonmetallic Minerals 270/1 The character of surface desired may be procured by..hacking the surface..before the concrete has become too hard.
1983 W. G. Nash Brickwork (ed. 3) 132 Remove any..scum on the top of the concrete and hack the surface well with a hacking hammer or mechanical hammer.
6. transitive. Sport (chiefly Association Football and Rugby). To kick the shin of (an opponent) intentionally with the toe of the boot in order to disable him or her; to kick (an opponent) in this way (also with down, over, etc.). Also: to kick (the ball), esp. wildly or roughly.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > [verb (transitive)] > kick shin of opponent intentionally
hack1851
1851 Rugbæan 15 Oct. 111/1 Is it not the height of the game, the height of interest, he runneth in full swiftly, hack him over..how will their shins ache.
1860 New Rugbeian Nov. 81 Hack the ball on when you see it near you, and when you don't, why then hack the fellow next you.
1897 Earl of Suffolk et al. Encycl. Sport I. 404/1 Rugby Football... Not only was it legal to hack over the carrier of the ball, but also the first on side, and I have seen as many as four of the van brought to earth by this means.
1900 Manch. Guardian 15 Jan. 4 Hacked the shins of the Greys..unmercifully.
1985 Daily Tel. (Sydney) (Nexis) 5 Dec. Stapleton,..forced to play in defence as a result of his side's injury crisis, hacked the ball into his own net.
1996 D. Brimson & E. Brimson Everywhere we Go i. 13 The opposing full-back hacked down one of the Tottenham players.
2001 FourFourTwo Sept. 45/3 Past one lunging tackle, past another and then, inevitably, he's hacked off his feet.
7. intransitive. Golf. To hit at the ball roughly, without skill or control; to progress around a course in this way. Also transitive: to hit at (a ball) or work (one's way) round a course in this manner. Cf. hacker n. 2d.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > golf > play golf [verb (intransitive)] > types of stroke
putt1690
approach1887
duff1890
to drive the green1892
hack1893
sclaff1893
press1897
chip1903
bolt1909
to chip in1914
double-bogey1952
bogey1977
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > ball game > golf > play golf [verb (transitive)] > type of play or stroke
drive1743
draw1842
heel1857
hook1857
loft1857
founder1878
to top a ball1881
chip1889
duff1890
pull1890
slice1890
undercut1891
hack1893
toe1893
spoon1896
borrow1897
overdrive1900
trickle1902
bolt1909
niblick1909
socket1911
birdie1921
eagle1921
shank1925
explode1926
bird1930
three-putt1946
bogey1948
double-bogey1952
fade1953
1893 Sat. Rev. 14 Oct. 436/1 They hacked round the course, iron-marking and furrowing it into a ploughed field.
1915 A. H. Revell Pro & Con of Golf 80 You..hack the ball back on to the fairway again.
1975 World Professional Golf Ann. 60 He hacked and hacked until he reached the green in five and then..took three putts.
2001 R. Jenkins Childish Things iii. 73 It could be argued that the duffer has a happier time hacking his way round for a score of 110 or so than the expert who moans over every shot lost to par.
II. To make sounds or utterances resembling repeated chopping or striking.† 8. intransitive. Of the teeth: to chatter. Obsolete.† 9. † 10. intransitive. To prevaricate; (also) to quibble, haggle. Obsolete. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > hearing and noise > degree, kind, or quality of sound > repeated sound or succession of sounds > [verb (intransitive)] > make chattering sound > specifically of teeth
chatterc1420
hacka1450
chitter1535
clacket1579
beata1592
shatter1682
the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > coldness > be cold [verb (intransitive)] > be cold or have sensation of cold > chatter with cold (of teeth)
chatter1537
hack1549
to say an ape's paternoster1578
a1450 Castle of Love (Bodl. Add.) (1967) l. 1642 Ther shull þe synfull quake And her tethe togedur hacke and shake.
1549 M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. Jas. v. f. xxxix Theyr teeth hacked in theyr heade, they were staruen for colde.
a1638 J. Paget Medit. Death (1639) i. viii. 217 This frozen climate where there is such continuall cause of the teeth hacking in the head for cold.
?1746 ‘T. Bobbin’ View Lancs. Dial. 16 I dithert so ot meh Teeth hackt eh meh Heaod ogen.
1844 S. Bamford Passages Life Radical 35 I heard his teeth hacking in his head.
a. intransitive. To hesitate in speech; to stammer. Cf. hacker v. 1. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > defective or inarticulate speech > speak inarticulately or with a defect [verb (intransitive)] > stammer or speak hesitantly
stammerc1000
wlaffe1025
stotec1325
humc1374
mafflea1387
stut1388
rattlea1398
famble14..
mammera1425
drotec1440
falterc1440
stackerc1440
hem1470
wallowa1475
tattle1481
mant1506
happer1519
trip1526
hobblea1529
hack1553
stagger1565
faffle1570
stutter1570
hem and hawk1588
ha1604
hammer1619
titubate1623
haw1632
fork1652
hacker1652
lispc1680
hesitate1706
balbutiate1731
haffle1790
hotter1828
stutter1831
ah1853
catch1889
1553 T. Wilson Arte of Rhetorique 62 Hackyng and hemmyng as though our wittes..were a woll gatheryng.
1604 T. Middleton Ant & Nightingale To Rdr. sig. A4v Yours, if you read without spelling or hacking: T. M.
1662 H. Some tr. P. Pellisson-Fontanier Misc. of Divers Probl. xi. 38 It is plain also, that Lovers do many times hack and hammer instead of speaking.
1760 G. Baretti Dict. Eng. & Ital. Lang. I. at Trogliare To stammer, to stutter, to hack and hew.
1792 ‘T. Thrum’ Monkeys in Red Caps 16 ‘Brothers and friends!’ he faintly stammer'd; Then..Began again, and hack'd, and hammer'd.
1824 Summer Evening Tales 148 I, unaccustomed to public exhibition, hacked and stammered at reading a chapter of the Bible in company.
1884 R. Jefferies Life of Fields 155 If any one hacks and haws in speaking, it is called ‘hum-dawing’.
b. transitive. to hack out: to stammer out. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > speech > defective or inarticulate speech > utter inarticulately [verb (transitive)] > utter hesitantly or stammer
hem1553
mant1568
stammer1587
to hack out1602
stammer1608
fribblea1627
lisp1627
stutter1655
hesitate1734
to falter forth or out1762
hobble1813
falter1851
1602 T. Dekker Satiro-mastix sig. I2 The best verse that euer I knew him hacke out, was his white necke-verse.
1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies ix. 69 If any..be admitted to his Clergy, and by helpe of a..Prompter, hacke out his Necke-verse.
a1682 Sir T. Browne Certain Misc. Tracts (1683) viii. 133 Present Parisians can hardly hack out those few lines of the League between Charles and Lewis..yet remaining in old French.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > bargaining > bargain [verb (intransitive)]
bargain1525
hucka1529
hucker1548
dodge1568
blockc1570
pelt1579
hack1587
haggle1589
to beat the bargain1591
to beat the market1591
huckster1593
niffera1598
badger1600
scotch1601
palter1611
cheapen1620
higgle1633
tig-tag1643
huckle1644
chaffer1693
chaffer1725
dicker1797
niffer1815
Jew1825
hacker1833
banter1835
higgle-haggle1841
hondle1921
wheel and deal1961
the mind > language > speech > agreement > make an agreement [verb (intransitive)] > negotiate
driveOE
treat1297
chaffer1377
broke1496
hucka1529
capitulate1537
hack1587
haggle1589
huckster1593
negotiate1598
to stand out1606
palter1611
to drive a hard bargaina1628
priga1628
scotch1627
prig1632
higgle1633
to dodge it1652
to beat a (the) bargain1664
1587 T. Churchyard Worthines of Wales sig. K4 They hacke not long, about the thing they sell.
1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage viii. viii. 783 [He] doth according to his wit, without hacking professe Hakluit..his greatest benefactor.
11. intransitive. To cough repeatedly, esp. with a short, dry cough.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > respiratory spasms > have respiratory spasm [verb (intransitive)] > cough
coughc1325
hoastc1440
yoke1527
tussicate1598
hatch1733
hack1770
1770 [implied in: Gen. Evening Post 20 Dec. (advt.) Violently afflicted with a hacking cough [at hacking adj. 4].].
1802 T. Beddoes Hygëia I. 14 Marianne..has been hacking all the afternoon. Do tell her of some little thing that is good against a cough.
1886 R. E. G. Cole Gloss. Words S.-W. Lincs. (at cited word) He has been hacking like that all night.
1919 Pop. Sci. May 111/3 Do you wake up in the morning feeling like a human wreck..hacking and spitting from chronic catarrh?
1999 M. Bliss William Osler xii. 469 He woke up in the night and hacked for hours in paroxysms that sometimes reminded him of whooping cough.
2008 B. Jent Weddin' Day 131 The children sniffed and hacked and experienced the rise and fall of reoccurring fevers.
III. In extended senses.† 12. intransitive. English regional (Yorkshire). With at. To imitate. Obsolete. rare.
ΚΠ
1828 W. Carr Dial. Craven (ed. 2) Hack at, to imitate.
13. transitive. slang (originally U.S.). To annoy, irritate, anger; to depress; (also) to disconcert, confuse. In later use chiefly with off.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of being upset or perturbed > upset or perturb [verb (transitive)]
to-wendc893
mingeOE
dreveOE
angerc1175
sturb?c1225
worec1225
troublec1230
sturble1303
disturbc1305
movea1325
disturblec1330
drubblea1340
drovec1350
distroublec1369
tempestc1374
outsturba1382
unresta1382
stroublec1384
unquietc1384
conturb1393
mismaya1400
unquemea1400
uneasec1400
discomfita1425
smite?a1425
perturbc1425
pertrouble?1435
inquiet1486
toss1526
alter1529
disquiet1530
turmoil1530
perturbate1533
broil1548
mis-set?1553
shake1567
parbruilyiec1586
agitate1587
roil1590
transpose1594
discompose1603
harrow1609
hurry1611
obturb1623
shog1636
untune1638
alarm1649
disorder1655
begruntlea1670
pother1692
disconcert1695
ruffle1701
tempestuate1702
rough1777
caddle1781
to put out1796
upset1805
discomfort1806
start1821
faze1830
bother1832
to put aback1833
to put about1843
raft1844
queer1845
rattle1865
to turn over1865
untranquillize1874
hack1881
rock1881
to shake up1884
to put off1909
to go (also pass) through a phase1913
to weird out1970
1881 Cultivator & Country Gentleman 3 Nov. 709/4 I take great pride in caring for my sheep, and to lose one from any cause whatever, always ‘hacks’ me.
1893 W. James Mavrick xiii. 177 It would hack him to know that the cook knew more than to swallow all of his gags about St. Louis.
1917 Dial. Notes 4 413 That joke hacks Steve to this day.
1964 K. Kesey Sometimes Great Notion 169 Jan tells me to be sure..not to say something to hack him off again.
1976 L. Aaker Jrnl. 19 Oct. in Woman's Odyssey (1994) 11 Why is it that men can screw around and women just can't? The double standard really hacks me.
2011 Independent 21 Feb. (Viewspaper section) 10 (headline) That Apple makes money from apps is not news. But it's the way it works that has hacked off..disenchanted developers.
14. transitive. slang (originally U.S.). To manage, accomplish; to cope with; to tolerate. Frequently in to hack it.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > calmness > patience > endure patiently [verb (transitive)]
takec1175
dure1297
suffer1297
eata1382
to take in patiencec1385
to take awortha1387
endure1477
to go through ——1535
pocket1589
to sit down1589
hack1936
the world > action or operation > prosperity > success > succeed or be a success [verb (intransitive)] > achieve success (of persons) > succeed in doing anything > succeed under difficulties
win through1644
to come through1708
to pull through1830
pull1856
to fetch through1912
to hack it1936
1936 Daily Times (Harrison, Arkansas) 1 July The river come up too fast and Fred saw that he couldn't hack it, and started to run back to keep from going down with the wreck.
1955 Antioch Rev. 15 379 I can't hack something like stealing.
1968 Maclean's Dec. 29/1 I just couldn't hack teaching any more, it was as simple as that.
1972 Newsweek 7 Aug. 18/2 I had proved to the world during my four years in the Senate..that I can hack it.
1989 Ski May 8/3 They can't hack the jet lag and don't know how to reset their watches.
2011 J. Cartwright Other People's Money (2012) xvi. 157 Does she really want to be responsible for humiliating a family like the Tubals just for a story, for the sake of the Globe and Mail..? Or is it for the editor, who couldn't hack it in London?
15.
a. intransitive. To engage in writing computer programs or software, esp. purely for personal satisfaction. Cf. hacking n.1 4a. Also transitive: to produce (a computer program or piece of software). Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > [verb (intransitive)] > hack
hack1975
1975 [implied in: New Scientist 26 June 709/1 ‘Hacking’ has come to denote a form of activity indulged in by the worldwide band of computer fanatics. It is simply the activity of designing and implementing software systems in which one is personally interested. (at hacking n.1 6a)].
1982 Time 8 Nov. 92/1 In the Hacker's Dictionary, one finds..gweep (one who spends unusually long periods of time hacking).
1983 G. L. Steele et al. Hacker's Dict. 13 At MIT, I would sometimes work nights for a month at a time. Now that I am married, I find that I can hack only in spurts.
1996 Computerworld 1 Apr. 36/2 It's too bad the folks who hacked the original version of Mosaic..went to Illinois/Urbana-Champaign, which shows up on the ‘fewest top skills offered’ list.
b. transitive. To modify (computer software, code, hardware components, etc.), esp. in order to provide a (typically inelegant) solution or workaround to a problem (cf. hack n.1 7a); to provide (a solution or workaround) by doing this. Also intransitive.
ΚΠ
1978 A. R. West in I. W. Cotton Computer Sci. & Technol.: Local Area Networking (U.S. Dept. of Commerce National Bureau of Standards) 24 In the meanwhile, whilst Rutherford are working on the hardware, we decided to hack together out of the standard building bricks of our M6800 development system a similar network (but of much lower bandwidth).
1984 J. Draper in InfoWorld 18 June 66/1 Hacking the phone, hacking the computer, hackingthis and that... Hacking to me is taking things apart, figuring out how they work... I'm just hacking on my own programs right now.
1988 InfoWorld 22 Aug. 38 We hacked a Unix utility and created Wzmail.
2003 R. Flickenger Wireless Hacks Pref. p. xii O'Reilly's Hacks series..document the ways people are hacking (in a good way), and pass the hacker ethic of creative participation on to the uninitiated.
2012 S. Balandin & M. Gillet in S. Virtanen Innovations Embedded & Real-time Systems Engin. for Communication viii. 142/2 Try to hack a solution by re-using some existing hardware interfaces that were not designed for such purpose.
c. intransitive. To gain unauthorized access to or control over a computer system, network, a person's telephone communications, etc., typically remotely. Chiefly with into.
ΚΠ
1982 InfoWorld 14 June 22/4 Put another password in, Bomb it out and try again, Try to get past logging in, We're hacking, hacking, hacking.
1985 Times 2 Apr. 18/5 The equipment needed can be used quite legitimately...But it can also be used to hack into other people's computers.
1996 J. Rovin Games of State xlix. 377 They hacked into tax, employment, and education records of the former Federal Republic of Germany.
2009 Independent 10 Aug. 26/1 China was accused of hacking into the servers of Western governments in 2007.
2014 Mercury (S. Afr.) (Nexis) 15 May 7 The former royal editor of..News of the World..admitted to a London court yesterday that he repeatedly hacked into the voicemails of Princes William and Harry.
d. transitive. To gain unauthorized access to or control over (a computer system, network, a person's telephone communications, etc.), typically remotely. Also with the owner(s) of the system, network, etc., as object.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > [verb (transitive)] > gain access to > without authorization
hack1983
1983 N.Y. Times 28 Aug. 20 Hackers..wouldn't..think of calling up on the telephone and saying, ‘Hi, I'm a bright young guy and I'd like to hack your computer’.
1986 Daily Tel. 16 Apr. 2/6 [He] had told the police he hacked the system ‘to publicise British Telecom's negligence’.
2001 Network World 27 Aug. 75/2 Sandusky allegedly hacked the system on three different days between late February and early March.
2011 Independent 4 Aug. 7/2 You've obviously hacked my phone and if you do anything with this story..I'll go to the police.
2012 J. Swain Dark Magic xiix. 119 I told you—I want you to hack the FBI.
e. transitive. To apply an unorthodox strategy or expedient solution to adapt (something) to suit one's particular needs or preferences. (cf. hack n.1 7c).
ΚΠ
2002 D. Verton Hacker Diaries vi. 155 You don't just hack a computer, you hack your car or your school assignment. Hacking is an unconventional way of thinking and solving a problem that cannot be solved by conventional means.
2006 Business Today (New Delhi) 27 Aug. 147/2 www.lifehacker.com comes out with regular tips and tricks to hack your life and make it so much more fun.
2013 D. J. Stephens Hacking your Educ. Introd. p. xiii I will teach you the steps required to hack your education. The chapters include suggested actions that you can take right now to start shaping your own education.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
hackv.2
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ Now rare.
transitive. = hackle v.2 1a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > treating or processing textile materials > treating or processing flax, hemp, or jute > treat or process flax, hemp, or jute [verb (transitive)] > heckle
hatchela1325
hecklea1325
hack1577
hackle1599
carminate1604
tow1615
rough1817
ruff1853
strick1894
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 39 [Flax] combed and hacked vpon an iron combe [L. ferreisque hamis pectitur].
1732 R. Bradley Country Gentleman & Farmer's Monthly Director (ed. 6) 41 It is combed and hack'd with Iron-Combs till it is drawn out fine.
1824 Mem. Pennsylvania Agric. Soc. 295 Then they had the two bundles hacked separately.
1857 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 27 Nov. 30/1 Improvements in machinery for hacking and preparing flax.
1905 Altoona (Pa.) Mirror 2 Sept. 4/4 Must first be hacked or combed, much as wool or flax is carded.
2010 S. Willard Rochester 99 (caption) Henry Ault, 73, hacking flax.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
hackv.3
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ 1. transitive. To make a hack of; to use in an indiscriminate way; to make common, stale, or trite by such treatment. Also to hack about. Later only in to hack to death, probably with allusion to hack v.1 1a.
ΚΠ
1734 Gentleman's Mag. May 260/2 The favourite unmeaning Terms of Art..does he hack about, without any Mercy.
1762 C. Denis in St. James's Mag. 1 153 If ever tale was hackt about, Grown obsolete, almost worn out, 'Tis that which now I undertake.
1864 Spectator No. 1874. 614 We would that so good a name had not been..hacked about all over the country and in every newspaper, until it goes against the grain to use it.
1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal III. i. 3 Her tenderest emotions had been hacked and vulgarized by long experience in flirtation.
1883 St. James's Gaz. 14 Dec. 3/2 [An] argument..which is being hacked to death in all the Radical newspapers.
1969 Greenfield (Mass.) Recorder 18 Jan. Song writers have literally hacked it to death.
1997 Amer. Jrnl. Compar. Law 45 350 ‘Gypsy king’ is a term that has been hacked to death by cub journalists.
2.
a. transitive. To use (a horse) for general riding, esp. on a road, path, etc.; to ride (a horse) at a steady pace. Also (esp. in later use): to ride (a horse), typically in the countryside, for pleasure or exercise.
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society > travel > transport > riding on horse (or other animal) > ride (a horse or other animal) [verb (transitive)] > use (a horse) for general riding
hackney1575
hack1891
1800 G. Culley Let. 3 Feb. in M. Culley & G. Culley Farming Lett. (2006) 60 You had better buy a strong horse, or mare, that would draw, and ride the black mare which you used to hack formerly.
1891 A. E. T. Watson in R. Weir et al. Riding (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) 61 Ponies are good for boys to learn upon..It is possible to hack them, but they are not hacks in the true sense of the term.
1969 C. Carey Show-jumping Summer v. 6 We turned Franci and Lion out next the next morning and hacked Venture.
1996 Observer 31 Mar. (Sports section) 5/6 He's probably past his sell-by date. We jumped the water in contention, but from then on I just hacked him round.
2010 Daily Tel. 15 Nov. 35/3 Parker hacked his own horse to all meets, often leaving the kennels at dawn and returning in the dark.
b. intransitive. To use a horse for general riding; to ride on a road, path, etc., as distinct esp. from cross-country or military riding. Also (esp. in later use): to ride a horse, typically in the countryside, for pleasure or exercise.
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society > travel > transport > riding on horse (or other animal) > ride a horse (or other animal) [verb (intransitive)] > ride at ordinary pace on road
hack1846
1846 Sporting Mag. Oct. 276 When residing a few miles from Dublin I wanted a common horse to hack in and out of town in bad weather.
1857 G. A. Lawrence Guy Livingstone 64 He asked her if she would lend him Bella Donna to hack to cover.
1937 Daily Express 3 Mar. 14/2 She hacks in the park at Arundel.
1990 Horse & Pony 13 Sept. (Corr.) 8 By the end of week two you should be hacking for about 1½ hours a day including four trots of five minutes each.
2006 S. R. Newman Silver Dreams v. 68 The two riders hacked along the trail through the woods.
3. † a. transitive. To hire or employ as a literary hack. Obsolete.Earliest as hacked adj.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > art or occupation of writer or author > be the author of or write (a work) [verb (transitive)] > write as hack > employ as hack
hack1813
1813 W. Scott Let. 28 Apr. (1932) III. 263 If he takes the opinion of a hacked old author like myself.
1829 W. Scott Jrnl. 16 Apr. (1946) 53 For being hacked, what is it but another word for being an author.
b. intransitive. To work as a hack; to do hackwork. Also transitive: (with out) to write (a story, article, etc.) as or in the manner of a hack (rare).
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1950 Planet Stories Fall 105/1 I really should be writing a theme for English Comp instead of hacking out this article.
1976 H. Harrison Best of Harry Harrison Introd. 78 Since I was hacking for money, not for art, I specialized in inking only.
1993 R. Whittemore Six Literary Lives iii. 94 Whether he hacked or wrote seriously his art remained one of statement.
2005 R. Rebmann First Point Pleasure Surv. 1 I had been hacking for a tourist newspaper that summer.
4. U.S. colloquial.† b. intransitive. To ride in a hack or cab. Obsolete.
a. intransitive. To drive a hack or hired cab.
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society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > transport by vehicles plying for hire > [verb (intransitive)] > travel by cab or taxi
cab1831
hack1877
hansom1890
taxi1909
1877 Weekly Cincinnati Law Bull. 6 Aug. 198/1 Hanley, an adept in hacking about the city..proposed..that he (Hanley) would procure a number and license.
1919 People of State of N.Y. against Daniel F. Lewis: Case on Appeal (Supreme Court, State of N.Y.: Appellate Div., 1st Dept.) 120 Q. You hacked around there for several weeks, didn't you?..A. I did hack around there.
1939 J. Weidman What's in it for Me? 111 I've been hacking here in New York for—.
2009 B. R. Tuttle How Newark Became Newark vi. 143 He took music classes in New York City by day and hacked for Safety Cab Company at night.
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society > travel > transport > transport or conveyance in a vehicle > riding in a vehicle > ride in a vehicle [verb (intransitive)] > ride in a wheeled vehicle > in specific type of horse-drawn vehicle
wagon1606
caroche1620
chariot1628
coach1631
to chaise it1792
gig1807
hack1879
buckboard1904
car1907
stolkjaerre1932
1879 [implied in: Philadelphia Times 8 May (Cent. Dict.) Are we more content to depend on street cars and walking, with the accustomed alternative of hacking at six times the money? (at hacking n.2 2a)].
1923 Dial. Notes 5 209 To hack around, to drive about in a hack, to ramble around.
5. Originally and chiefly U.S.
a. intransitive. To travel in an aimless or casual way. Chiefly with about, around.
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1892 Christian Union 4 June 1087/2 There is a great deal to be said in favor of travel... There is a great deal to be said of the comfort of hacking about from one resort to another, if one could only think what it is.
1905 G. S. Kimball Jay Gould Harmon xv. 276 Do you suppose that I propose to have my son hacking around the country for work?
1941 Delta Democrat-Times (Greenville, Mississippi) 30 Apr. 2/5 We've seen the boys hacking around the barnyards.
1993 M. Reisner Cadillac Desert (rev. ed.) ii. 57 He..spent a couple of years hacking about the lumber camps in Michigan and the dry-goods business in Pittsburgh.
1994 Esprit de Corps (Ottawa) Aug. 39/1 My unit, the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division, participated in the D-Day landing and by July of '44 we found ourselves hacking through the French city of Caen.
2005 G. Lord John Mortimer (2006) ix. 176 We need barristers like Rumpole hacking around the courts.
b. transitive. To offer around for sale. Also in extended use.Perhaps influenced by, or an alteration of, hawk v.2 (compare sense 2 at that entry).
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1902 Amer. Vet. Rev. 25 980 The consequence is the profitless cow is sold. Where does she go? Certainly she is not ‘hacked’ around among cheese factory patrons; they have no use for that kind.
1915 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Sept. 16/4 Why don't you place your book with an agent? You aren't the sort to be hacking it around among publishers' offices. Let an agent handle it for you.
1921 Legislative Rec. Eightieth Legislature State of Maine 80 1265/2 Outside capital would not come in here, and the securities of all our Industries are being hacked around the State by local agents.
1997 R. Pawson & N. Tilley Realistic Evaluation ii. 44 It is hacked around the literature as a mere empirical regularity which happens to have cropped up as an outcome against a range of experiments.
Phrasal verbs
With adverbs in specialized senses. to hack around to hack up
intransitive. Originally and chiefly North American. To pass time idly or without purpose; to hang around.
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1957 M. Shulman Rally round Flag, Boys! iv. 45 Before her tragedy she was always hacking around and yocking up a storm, but now she's very quiet and spiritual.
1970 R. Thorp & R. Blake Music of their Laughter 128/2 He just dropped out of school, hacked around—a few rotten jobs which he couldn't handle.
1993 Toronto Life Sept. 39/1 She loves the idea of her kids being able to walk to the local school and hack around with neighbourhood buddies.
2010 Canwest News Service (Nexis) 23 July Kids liked to drag race,..listen to the radio, hack around.
intransitive. In horse or greyhound racing: to win easily.
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1968 Irish Times 29 May 2 Sir Ivor..‘hacked up’ in the National Stakes.
1986 Greyhound Star Aug. 23/7 When he took over into the back straight it looked [like] he would hack up.
2013 Daily Star Online (Nexis) 6 Nov. (headline) Greyhound racing: Dak to hack up.
2015 Racing Post (Nexis) 17 Apr. 9 He looked like he would hack up at Southwell last year but only scraped home.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
hackv.4
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ transitive. To place (bricks) in rows on hacks to dry before firing (see hack n.4 2).
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society > occupation and work > industry > manufacturing processes > brick and tile making > make bricks and tiles [verb (transitive)] > specific processes
strike1683
shinlog1703
deliver1809
hack1813
underburn1841
malm1850
off-bear1856
skintle1876
kelly1884
1813 Arch. Useful Knowl. 3 404 They are hacked, that is piled up on edge, so that one brick is made to stand with a small angle on two others.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1046/1 They [sc. bricks] are sundried or hacked and temporarily covered with a thatching of straw to protect them.
1884 C. T. Davis Pract. Treat. Manuf. Bricks 126 Each man ‘takes in his share’, and carefully hacks them in the drying shed.
1976 Oakland (Calif.) Tribune 15 Apr. He stacked the bricks and ‘hacked’ the bricks.
2005 N.Y. Post (Nexis) 11 Dec. 61 The hardest job I'd had. It was hacking brick and you had to put 'em on these big hack lines.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
hackv.5
/hak/, U.S. /hæk/ Falconry.
transitive. To keep (a hawk) in a state of partial liberty, esp. before training. Cf. hack n.3
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1873 F. H. Salvin & W. Brodrick Falconry in Brit. Isles (ed. 2) Gloss. 150 Short-winged Hawks are not hacked; old Falcons are sometimes, when out of health.
1892 G. Lascelles Falconry in H. Cox & G. Lascelles Coursing & Falconry (Badminton Libr. of Sports & Pastimes) 224 If hacking such hawks was not formerly practised.
1900 Sat. Rev. 30 June 805/2 The directions for hacking hawks..are obsolete and misleading.
1958 T. H. White Once & Future King ii. ii. 227 A pair of peregrines that were being hacked in a nearby field flew over their heads.
2013 St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press (Nexis) 15 Feb. Breeding and releasing falcons..can be expensive, Redig said. Hacking falcons costs about $2,500 per bird.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
> see also
also refers to : hack-comb. form
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n.11333n.21571
n.31575n.41612
n.51658
n.61658
n.71899
v.1a1200v.21577v.31734v.41813v.51873see also