hackyadj.1
/ˈhaki/, U.S. /ˈhæki/ 1. In early use colloquial. Of a cough: short, dry, and persistent; hacking. Cf. hack v.1 11.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > respiratory spasms > [adjective] > coughing > type of cough
hecking1642
bound1759
short1797
hacky1810
loose1833
retching1856
pecking1865
brassy1880
productive1923
1810 A. Taylor et al. Signor Topsy-Turvy's Wonderful Magic Lantern 51 Light a fire, and directly it threaten'd to choke ye, It made you so hacky, and coughy, and croaky.
1887 Harper's Mag. July 308/2 His cough grows hollerer an' hackier, Mis' Burton.
1921 Med. Pickwick July 249/1 The hacky cough had left in its wake a trail of fatigue.
1981 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 81 515/1 The baby often has a hacky, harsh cough, low-grade fever, and wheezing.
2007 University Wire (Nexis) 3 Jan. As flu season approaches,..students should be aware of the hacky cough, sore throat and high fever symptoms associated with the illness.
2. colloquial. Providing an inelegant yet effective solution to a computing problem; characterized by hacks (hack n.1 7).
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1990 Jrnl. Symbolic Logic 55 1303 More involved and ‘hacky’ programming skills are also required.
1991 .EXE Mag. July 82/1 I guess you never really forget how to write programs, they just get less clever as time goes on. You drop all those unreadable hacky things in favour of stolid dependable code.
2003 M. Dubinko XForms Essent. iii. 45 XML Schema booleans differ... Because of this, hacky workarounds are sometimes needed.
2015 M. Neuburg Programming iOS 8 (ed. 5) 507 Your setting is overridden by the runtime. My rather hacky solution is to provide some extra delay.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
hackyadj.2
/ˈhaki/, U.S. /ˈhæki/ colloquial.† 1. Characteristic of or resembling a hack or horse for everyday riding (see hack n.2 1b). Also (and earliest) in hacky-looking adj. Obsolete.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > equus caballus or horse > [adjective] > belonging to or like horse
horse-like1530
horsen1558
hacky1856
hippoid1877
1856 Era 22 June 4/3 The field contained a very hacky-looking animal called Raphael.
1856 Sporting Mag. Oct. 238 Their horse was a little big... His hacky quarters have become rounded.
1870 Daily News 6 June Britannia [sc. a mare]..she is ‘hacky’, and in the wrong place here.
1871 Sporting Gaz. 27 May 361/1 Her short ‘hacky’ appearance, so characteristic of her dam.
2. Lacking originality; hackneyed; cf. hack n.2 4.Originally of journalism or a journalist.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > weakness or feebleness > [adjective] > dull > stale or mechanical
vinnied1563
overworn1578
seta1616
stock1738
hackneyed1747
commonplace1801
stereotype1824
stereotyped1849
hacky1862
stereotypic1884
cliché1895
cliché-ridden1920
clichéd1925
1862 Atlas 1 Feb. 5/4 Every paper has a ‘hacky’ mannerism about it.
1936 Whitewright (Texas) Sun 15 Oct. 1/1 The chief theme of hacky writers like us.
1941 ‘B. Tucker’ in Le Zombie Jan. 9 The morning housewife tear-jerkers are called ‘soap operas’. For the hacky, grinding, stinking, outworn space-ship yarn, or world-saving for that matter, we offer ‘space opera’.
1975 Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Mass.) 13 Nov. 18/3 CBS maimed ‘Beacon Hill’ with such blizzards of commercials that the rather hacky performers were unable to..re-create viewer interest.
1995 New Republic 2 Oct. 20 Every third issue, there's..a hacky sentimental story.
2009 N.Y. Mag. 12 Oct. 70/2 His actual monologues—hacky flashbacks about hippie guilt so generic you can practically see the Wikipedia citations—are draggy.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2016; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.11810adj.21856