hackworkn.
/ˈhakwəːk/, U.S. /ˈhækˌwərk/ 1. † a. The work or trade of hiring out horses and carriages. Cf. hack n.2 3. Obsolete.
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1814 Bury & Norwich Post 9 Mar. 3/2 A ligh [sic] gig, well adapted for hack work, for service as good as can be built.
1832 Times 11 Sept. 1/6 Two Sets of Harness, fit for fast coach, light post, cab, and hack work.
1900 W. W. Beaumont Motor Vehicles & Motors I. xxxix. 614 Work which will hasten..the day when horses will no longer be made to endure the sufferings that mark the three to five years that it now takes to ‘knock them out’ in the hack work of London and other big towns.
b. General work carried out by a horse; general-purpose riding. See hack n.2 1.
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1830 London Age 25 July 234/3 General it is said can run a good race, where hay and oats are in sight. He was chiefly employed, before his excellence was discovered, in hack work.
1833 ‘Nimrod’ in New Sporting Mag. Dec. 110/2 The servants..are..every day in their saddles. Their noble master..has long shared the labour with them, barring the hack work between Cheltenham and Broadway.
1863 W. Miles Horse's Foot (ed. 9) App. 10 I expressed some doubts about the efficiency of six nails for hunting, and five for hack work.
1908 Outing Feb. 637/1 The average purveyor of those hardy creatures [sc. ponies] for polo and hack work will insist that they are nearly related to the thoroughbred.
2003 D. Morrissey Barra Creek (2007) 92 This was a horse who had been ridden hard, treated rough and now in her golden years had been relegated to hack work.
2. Work carried out by a hack (hack n.2 4a); spec. paid literary work undertaken for a publisher, editor, etc. Hence in later use: dull, unoriginal work.
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society > occupation and work > work > [noun] > servile or menial work
thrall-workc1175
drudgery1548
slavery1551
journey-work1614
drudgery work1632
slave work1808
hackwork1824
dog's work1847
dog work1850
grind1851
daily grind1853
slave work1916
donkey-work1920
clock-punching1929
legwork1942
shitwork1958
kyeyo1996
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
1824 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 632/2 This specimen of hack-work and quack-work must be scouted by the public.
1835 Albion 8 Dec. A man..whom constant hackwork as a battered politician, had rendered callous to the pleading of honourable compunction.
1881 D. Masson in Macmillan's Mag. Dec. 159 Such articles of hackwork as might be intrusted conveniently to an unknown young man on the spot.
1920 Bookman May 320/2 The stream of my thought stopped flowing long ago, having been dried up in absorption in literary hack-work.
1995 W. Kinderman Beethoven vi. 149 Much of this stage music is hackwork far beneath the level of his other compositions.
2014 Atlantic Monthly Dec. 52/1 Talent takes care of itself, and the truth is that in his hackwork and hirework, Thomas developed another style.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1814