▪ I. hack, n.1
(hæk)
Also 4–5 hak(e, 5 hacc, 5–7 hacke.
[In sense 1, known from end of 13th c.; app. cognate with MHG. and Ger. hacke, Da. hakke pick-axe, mattock, hoe, Du. hak hoe, mattock, in Kilian hacke; related to hack v.1 The word is not found in OE., nor in ON. The other senses are prob. of later derivation from the vb.: cf. Da. and Sw. hak notch, from hakken.]
1. A tool or implement for breaking or chopping up. a. Variously applied to agricultural tools of the mattock, hoe, and pick-axe type.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 1241 He lened him þan a-pon his hak, Wit seth his sun þus-gat he spak. 1483 Cath. Angl. 169/2 A Hacc, bidens, &c. Ibid. 170/1 An Hak (A. hake), bidens, fossorium, ligo, marra. 1594 Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 36 Payed for sharpinge the church hacke. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 655 Such seeds may be sowne in little furrowes made with a hacke or grubbing axe. 1620 Markham Farew. Husb. ii. ii. (1668) 4 With these hacks you shall hew and cut to pieces all the earth formerly plowed up furrow by furrow. 1674 Ray N. C. Words 34 A Hack; a Pick⁓ax; a Mattock made only with one, and that a broad end. 1797 Monthly Mag. III. 34 The custom..of breaking the ground or clods with a sort of hack. 1855 Robinson Whitby Gloss., Hack, half a mattock, one without the adze end. |
b. A two-pronged tool like a mattock, used for pulling up turnips, dragging dung, etc.; = drag 2 e.
| 1797 Statist. Acc. Scotl. XIX. 535 (Jam.) 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. 1808–25 Jamieson s.v. Hack, Mudhack, a pronged mattock, used for dragging dung from carts. 1848 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IX. ii. 505 They [turnips] are pulled up by a peculiar drag, or ‘hack’ as it is provincially called [N. Rid. Yorks.]. |
c. A miner's pick used for breaking stone, esp. in sinking work.
| 1681 Houghton Compl. Miner Gloss (E.D.S), Hack, a tool that miners use like a mattock. 1747 Hooson Miner's Dict., Hack, a Tool much used in Mines, where it is soft Work to cut it with. 1851 Greenwell Coal-Trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 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 Morgan 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’. |
d. A bill for cutting wood: see also quot. 1875.
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Hack, a tool for cutting jags or channels in trees for the purpose of bleeding them. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Hack, a sharp blade on a long handle used for cutting billets in two. |
2. a. A gash or wound made by a cutting blow or by rough or clumsy cutting; a cut, a nick; spec. a notch made in a tree to mark a particular spot or to serve as a guide through a wood; a ‘blaze’ (U.S.); a ‘chap’ in the skin.
| c 1575 Perf. Bk. Kepinge Sparhawkes (Harting) 34 Take a pece of clene yonge beefe cut..w{supt} ought hacks or jagges. 1597 Lowe Chirurg. (1634) 184 The hackes or rids of the lips, is a solution of continuitie in the tender flesh of the lip. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. ii. 222 Looke you what hacks are on his Helmet. 1808–18 Jamieson, Hack, a chop in the hands or feet. 1887 Forest & Stream XXVIII. 179 (Cent.) I went into the woods to cut a hack as a guide in hunting. |
b. Curling. An indentation made in the ice to steady the foot when hurling the stone.
| a 1812 Acc. Curling 6 (Jam.) A longitudinal hollow is made to support the foot, close by the tee..This is called a hack or hatch. 1892 Heathcote Skating & Curling 361 He [the curler] must first fit the tee..while his right foot rests in the hack or on the heel of the crampit. |
c. Football. A cut or gash in the skin caused by a kick with the toe of a boot.
| 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. vi. (1871) 115 [They] showed 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. |
† 3. A ridge of earth thrown up by ploughing or hoeing; = comb 6 c. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1744–50 W. Ellis Mod. Husb. III. i. 13 (E.D.S.) That ground which was fallowed in April into broad lands is commonly stirred this month [May] into hacks. Ibid. IV. i. 20 (E.D.S.) Plowing the land across in hacks or combs. |
4. Hesitation in speech.
| 1660 H. More Myst. Godl. vi. xvii. 270 He speaks to this very question..with so many hacks and hesitations. 1881 F. G. Lee Reg. Baront. iv. 46 After many hacks and stammers, he would get through a few sentences of the exordium haltingly. |
5. A short dry hard cough.
| 1885 L. W. Champney in Harper's Mag. Feb. 370/1 She had a little hack of a cough. |
6. An act of hacking; a hacking blow. Also fig., now esp. (U.S.) a try, attempt.
| 1836 D. Crockett Exploits & Adv. Texas 79 Better take a hack by way of trying your luck at guessing. 1873–4 Rep. Vermont Board Agric. II. 238, I have a chance to have several hacks at the weeds before the crop is sown. 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. 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. |
7. a. = hacker n. 3. b. A spell of hacking on a computer (see hacking vbl. n. 1 d); an act of gaining unauthorized access to a computer system.
| 1983 Your Computer (Austral.) Sept. 86/3 The first thing I noticed on scanning the list of assembler mnemonics was the complete lack of conditional calls and conditional returns—beloved of 8080 hacks, but which can cause subtle, if not dangerous, coding practices. 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. 1986 TeleLink Sept.–Oct. 56/1 Security in computer communications is an important issue these days, particularly after the much publicized hacks of what were previously thought of as secure systems. |
▪ II. hack, n.2
Also 6 hacke.
[In sense 2, another form of the words hatch and heck, having the consonant of the latter with the vowel of the former; cf. hetch, a variant of hatch. The other senses do not run quite parallel with those of hatch and heck, and it is possible that some of them are of different origin.]
1. Falconry. The board on which a hawk's meat is laid. Hence applied to the state of partial liberty in which eyas hawks are kept before being trained, not being allowed to prey for themselves. to fly, be at hack, to be in this state.
| 1575 Turberv. Faulconrie 175 To convey in the deuise whereon their meate is served called amongst falconers the Hacke. 1828 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 Indus iv. 43 As soon as they begin to fly strongly they must be taken from hack. 1881 Macm. Mag. XLV. 39 The food is put out—one ration for each of the hawks which are ‘at hack’. |
2. A rack to hold fodder for cattle. to live at hack and manger, i.e. in plenty, ‘in clover’. Usually heck; see also hatch. ? Obs. exc. dial.
| 1674 Ray N.C. Words 23 A Hack (Lincolns.)..Fæni conditorium, seu præsepe cancellatum signat; a Rack. 1795 in J. Robertson Agric. Perth (1799) 543 A small hack full of fine hay. 1818 S. E. Ferrier Marriage xxvi. (D.), The servants at Lochmarlie must be living at hack and manger. 1825 Scott Jrnl. 9 Dec., [She] lived with half the gay world at hack and manger. |
3. A frame on which bricks are laid to dry before burning; a row of moulded bricks laid out to dry.
| 1703 T. N. City & C. Purchaser 42 The Hacks (or Places where they Row them [bricks] up..to admit the Wind and Air to dry them). 1873 Robertson Engineer. Notes 27 He..wheels them [the bricks] down to the hacks which should be between the moulding shed and kiln. 1896 Chamb. Jrnl. XIII. 23/1 The stacking of the bricks in long rows or hacks, about five or six bricks high. |
4. = hake n.3 1.
| 1808–25 in Jamieson. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Hack..a framework for drying fish. |
5. attrib. and Comb. hack-barrow, a barrow on which bricks are conveyed from the moulder's table to the hacks; hack-bell (see quot.); hack-board = sense 1; hack-cap, a cover of straw to protect sun-dried bricks from the rain; hack-hawk, a hawk kept ‘at hack’; hack-place (see quot.); hack-plank, one on which bricks are laid to dry.
| 1891 Harting Gloss. Falconry, *Hack-bells, large heavy bells put on hawks to hinder them from preying for themselves whilst ‘flying at hack’. |
| 1892 Coursing & Falconry (Badm. Libr.) 240 As soon as the young hawks have..returned to feed at evening on the *hack-board. |
| 1882 Standard 16 Sept. 8/2 Brickmakers' plant and stock, comprising a large quantity of *hack caps, *hack planks. |
| 1686 R. Blome Gentl. Recreat. ii. 62 *Hack Hawk, is a Tackler. 1828 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. |
| 1881 Macm. 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. |
▪ III. hack, n.3 (a.)
[An abbreviation of hackney, in its various senses, at first in slang use, and mostly familiar or contemptuous. The various senses are connected with those of hackney more closely than with each other. Cf. the following:
a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Hacks, or Hackneys, Hirelings. 1721 Bailey, Hack, a common Hackney Horse. 1730–6 ― (folio), Hack, a common hackney Horse, Coach, or Strumpet.]
I. 1. A hackney horse; = hackney 1 and 2. a. A horse let out for hire; depreciatively, a sorry or worn out horse; a jade.
| 1721 Bailey [see above]. 1739 Cibber Apol. (1756) 26 Beaten Tits, that had just had the Mortification of seeing my Hack of a Pegasus come in before them. 1795 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Lousiad ii. 43 Mount on a Jack-Ass..astride his braying hack. 1813 H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr. iv. ix, Not spurring Pegasus through Tempè's grove, But pacing Grub-street on a jaded hack. 1829 Hood Epping Hunt xlvii, Butcher's hacks That ‘shambled’ to and fro. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge ii, My horse, young man! He is but a hack hired from a roadside posting house. |
b. spec. A horse for ordinary riding, as distinguished from cross-country, military, or other special riding; a saddle-horse for the road.
The word implies technically a half-bred horse with more bone and substance than a thorough-bred.
cover-hack, covert-hack, a horse for riding to the ‘meet’, or to the covert, where he is exchanged for the hunter. park-hack, a handsome ‘well-mannered’ horse for riding in the park: so town-hack. road-hack, a horse for riding on the road, travelling, etc.; a roadster.
| 1798 Sporting Mag. XII. 72 Lord Huntley's famous hack. 1841 J. T. J. Hewlett Parish Clerk I. 228 Six hunters and two cover-hacks. 1856 Illustr. Lond. News 12 Apr. 390/3 Sir Charles Knightley..stuck to his road hack long after his neighbours had taken to post-horses. 1859 Art of Taming Horses viii. 132 A cover or country hack must be fast, but need not be so showy in action or handsome as a town hack. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life, Power Wks. (Bohn) II. 340 The hack is a better roadster than the Arab barb. 1861 Times 11 July, Every man who..saunters through Rotton-row from 12 to 2 on a high-priced hack. 1866 M. E. Braddon Lady's Mile ii, Society doesn't compel him to ride his park-hack across country. 1872 Youatt Horse iv. (ed. 4) 91 One of those animals rare to be met with, that could do almost anything as a hack, a hunter, or in harness. |
2. A vehicle plying for hire; a hackney coach or carriage; = hackney 5. Now only U.S.
| 1704 Steele Lying Lover iii. ii, We'll take a Hack—Our Maids shall go with us. 1712 ― Spect. No. 510 ¶1, I was the other day driving in a hack thro' Gerard-street. 1752 Fielding Amelia iv. iii, 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 Scott Fam. Lett. 11 Feb. (1894) II. 166 To make their way in a noble hack, with four horses. 1872 Howells Wedd. Journ. 55 ‘We must have a carriage’, he added..hailing an empty hack. |
† 3. The driver of a hackney carriage. Obs.
| 1687 Montague & Prior Hind & Panth. Transv. 21 [They] slipping through the Palsgrave, bilkt poor Hack. 1713 Steele Guardian No. 14 ¶2 The happy minute..when our hack had the happiness to take in his expected fare. |
4. a. A person whose services may be hired for any kind of work required of him; a common drudge, = hackney 3; esp. a literary drudge, who hires himself out to do any and every kind of literary work; hence, a poor writer, a mere scribbler.
| a 1700 [see etym. above]. a 1774 Goldsm. Epit. on E. Purdon, Here lies poor Ned Purdon..Who long was a bookseller's hack. 1798 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Tales of Hoy Wks. 1812 IV. 424 The paper to which he was a hack. 1831 Macaulay Ess., Croker's Boswell (1887) 187 The last survivor of the genuine race of Grub Street hacks. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. ii. 22 A hard-working clerical hack. 1895 Times 23 Nov. 11/3 The hacks and wire-pullers on his own side in politics. |
b. slang. A prostitute; a bawd.
| 1730–6 [see etym. above]. 1864 Webster, Hack..a procuress. |
† 5. a. Anything that is in indiscriminate and everyday use, and is ‘hackneyed’ or deprived of novelty and interest by such use; a hackneyed sermon, book, quotation, etc.: cf. sense 9. Obs.
| 1711 Vind. Sacheverell 88 Was not this Sermon of the Doctors a common Hack at Oxford? 1740 Dyche & Pardon, Hack, any thing that is used in common, or upon all occasions, as a horse, cloak, etc. 1775 Ash, Hack..any thing commonly used, any thing used in common. 1790 F. Burney Diary & Lett. (1854) V. 81 Well (for that is my hack, as ‘however’ is my dearest Susanna's) we set off. 1805 G. Colman John Bull iii. i. (Stratm.), You'll find [Fielding's] Tom Jones.—Psha! that's such a hack. |
b. slang. Applied to persons: see quot.
| 1876 J. Grant One of the 600 i. 8 The garrison hacks, or passé belles, whose names and flirtations are standing jokes. |
6. Naut. A watch used, in taking observations, to obviate the necessity of moving the standard chronometer. Also hack-watch, job watch.
| 1851–9 G. B. Airy in Man. Sci. Enq. 3 If a hack-watch is used, the comparison of the hack-watch with the chronometer must be given. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Hack watch. 1881 L. R. Hamersly Naval Encycl., Hack. |
II. attrib. and Comb. (passing into adj.).
7. In apposition or attrib., as a. hack-horse = sense 1; so hack-cob, hack-poster. b. hack-cab, hack-cabriolet, hack-carriage, hack-chaise, hack-shay (see sense 2). c. Employed as a hack, at any one's service for literary or other work, for hire, as hack attorney, hack author, hack moralist, hack pen, hack preacher, hack runner, hack scribe, hack writer; so hack-writing.
| a 1734 North Exam. iii. vii. §52 (1740) 541 And so on to the Hack-Runners and Writers. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones x. ix, Unluckily, a few miles before she entered that town, she met the hack attorney. 1792 Wakefield Mem. (T.), Hack preachers employed in the service of defaulters and absentees. 1796 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. v, Mrs. Long..had to come to the ball in a hack chaise. 1814 D'Israeli Quarrels Auth. (1867) 282 A hack author for the booksellers. 1816 Sporting Mag. XLVIII. 239 A fall of 50l. per cent{ddd}in nag and hack horses. 1826 Blackw. Mag. XX. 296/2 You forget the effrontery of the hack-writer in the shame⁓facedness of the would-be gentleman. 1827 Scott Jrnl. 27 Apr., The hack-horse patiently trudges to the pole of his chaise. 1834 A. Fonblanque Eng. under 7 Administ. (1837) III. 163 The journey..was no more to be accomplished..with his own horses, so he took hack-posters. 1838 Dickens O. Twist xxvi, He called a hack-cabriolet. 1850 Kingsley Alton Locke II. ii. 14 My hack-writing was breaking down my moral sense, as it does that of most men. 1851 London at Table i. 31, I..started in a hack cab for the scene of action. 1856 Illustr. Lond. News 2 Feb. 126/2 A hack brougham for morning calls. 1868 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 356 Vilifying with their hack pens. 1878 Morley Carlyle 190 The hack moralist of the pulpit or the press. 1882 E. W. Gosse Gray vii. 142 Three hack-writers..were copying MSS. for hire. 1933 E. Pound Let. 24 Sept. (1971) 247 Teaching damn sight easier way of earning living than hackwriting. |
8. attrib. Of or belonging to a hack (senses 1, 2), as hack-driver, hack-rider, hack-stand. Also hackman.
| 1812 Boston Gaz. 10 Sept., Advt. (Th.), Hack Stand. 1835 in Southern Lit. Messenger IV. 197/1 My hack⁓driver..assured [me] that there was no other tavern in the city. 1854 M. Harland Alone xvi, Going to every hack-stand in the city. 1881 Encycl. Brit. XII. 196/2 Galloping is a pace not generally indulged in by hack riders. 1889 A. C. Gunter That Frenchman xii, It occurs to her to ask the hack-driver a question. Ibid. xiii, Near a hack-stand..he tells his assistant to jump out. |
9. attrib. or adj. a. In common or promiscuous use; hackneyed; trite, commonplace. b. Of a hired sort. Also hack-work.
| 1781 F. Burney Diary June, This, indeed, is now become our hack speech to Mr. Crutchley. 1818 Byron Juan iv. xvii, When the old world grows dull And we are sick of its hack sounds and sights. 1859 Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 254 To use a hack quotation. 1862 Shirley Nugæ Crit. iii. 156 The hack language on this subject is exceedingly injurious. 1883 Century Mag. XXVI. 285, I do more or less work of a hack kind for the magazines. |
Add: [4.] [a.] (b) slang, a journalist or reporter, esp. a staff newspaper writer (orig. disparaging, now chiefly jocular).
| 1810 Irish Mag. III. 427/1 Let them hire a news-paper hack, a shameless, trading defamer, a master of Babylonish dialect. 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. 1985 S. Lowry Young Fogey Handbk. i. 10 The most noticeable Young Fogeys are hacks (never journalists, please). 1990 Village Voice (N.Y.) 30 Jan. 59/1 A narrator..recounted an episode more or less lifted from the novelist's life, the supposedly hilarious courtship and marriage of a young radio station hack and his aunt. |
▪ IV. † hack, n.4
= hackle n.1 3, cover of a bee-hive.
| 1658 Evelyn Fr. Gard. (1675) 100 Like the cover or hack of a bee-hive. |
▪ V. † hack, n.5
= hackle n.2 1, a flax-comb.
| 1658 tr. Porta's Nat. Magick iv. xxv. 156 [Flax] kemmed with hackes, till all the membrans be pilled clean. |
▪ VI. hack, v.1
(hæk)
Forms: 3 acken, 3–6 hacke, hakke, (4 Sc. heke), (6 pa. pple. hact), 5 hak(e, 5– hack.
[Early ME. hack-en, repr. OE. *haccian (whence tó-haccian to hack in pieces):—Common WGer. *hakkôn: cf. OFris. to-hakia, MHG., MLG., MDu., G. hacken, mod.Du. hakken.]
I. Transitive senses.
1. To cut with heavy blows in an irregular or random fashion; to cut notches or nicks in; to mangle or mutilate by jagged cuts. In earlier use chiefly, To cut or chop up or into pieces, to chop off. Const. about, away, down, off, up.
| c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 139 A maiden bad te kinge his heued, and he hit bad of acken. a 1225 Ancr. R. 298 Heo hackede of his heaued. 1297 R. Glouc. (1724) 216 [He] by pece mele hakked yt al to nogte. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Cecile 205 Þu ma heke þaim as þu wil. c 1386 Chaucer Knt.'s T. 2007 He..leet comande anon to hakke and hewe The okes olde. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 440 Sethe hom, and hak hom smal. 1571 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) I. 308 Did cut and hacke away certane pipes of leade. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 187 My Sword hackt like a Hand-saw. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. 212 Causing them to be hacked very small. a 1716 South Serm. (1737) X. viii. (R.), That man who could stand and see another stripped or hacked in pieces by a thief or a rogue. 1788 Burke Sp. agst. W. Hastings Wks. XIII. 133 The tyrant..cut and hacked the limbs of British subjects in the most cruel..manner. 1796 H. Glasse Cookery iii. 27 Take the head up, hack it cross and cross with a knife. a 1859 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxiv. (1871) II. 694 Such a partition as is effected by hacking a living man limb from limb. 1886 Overton Evang. Revival 18th Cent. viii. 152 Buildings..hacked about to suit the taste of the last century. |
2. To make incisions or jags in by other means. a. Said of frost: To chap or crack the skin. dial.
| 1673 Ray Journ. Low C., Grison 417 Our faces were hackt and burnt..by the Cold. 1808–25 Jamieson s.v., The hands or feet, when chapped, are said to be hackit. |
b. Assoc. Football. To kick the shin of (an opponent) intentionally with the toe of the boot. Also in Rugby Football. Const. over, up.
| 1864 Blackheathen 9/1 ‘Hacking first man up’..remains at present quite a Rugby rule. 1866 Daily Tel. 7 Nov., The practice of ‘hacking’..consists in each side kicking their opponents’ shins in so fearful and violent a manner as to disable the players. 1873 H. Spencer Stud. Sociol. viii. 190 Perhaps the ‘education of a gentleman’ may properly include giving and receiving ‘hacking’ of the shins at football. 1887 Shearman Athletics & Football (Badm. Libr.) 297 The Union Code very properly abolished hacking, tripping, and scragging. 1887 M. Shearman Athletics & Football 395 No hacking, or hacking over, or tripping up shall be allowed under any circumstances. 1897 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. 1963 Times 24 Jan. 3/1 It had been agreed [when the laws of Rugby Union were drawn up] that hacking-over and tripping-up should not be permitted. |
c. To embarrass, annoy; to disconcert, confuse. Freq. as hacked ppl. a. U.S. slang or dial.
| 1892 J. C. Harris Uncle Remus & Friends 349 When you once git 'em hacked dey er hacked fer good; dey des give right up en roll der eyes. 1908 Dialect Notes III. 318 We tried to hack the pitcher. 1917 Ibid. IV. 413 That joke hacks Steve to this day. 1969 Rolling Stone 28 June 19/1 The big word down there is commercial... I wouldn't be so hacked off about it if I didn't love country music. |
d. To cope with, manage, accomplish; to tolerate, accept; to comprehend; freq. to hack it. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1955 Antioch Rev. XV. 379, I can't hack something like stealing. 1968 Maclean's Mag. Dec. 29/1, I just couldn't hack teaching any more, it was as simple as that. 1970 Globe Mag. (Toronto) 26 Sept. 9/2 You know, they're shooting people at Kent State and we talk about amendments to the Warble Fly Act. I can't hack that; it drives me crazy. 1972 Sunday Mirror 16 Apr. 23/3 Now, suddenly and bewilderingly since President Nixon has ordered his legions home, the Arvin is a great little guy who can hack it. 1972 Newsweek 7 Aug. 18/2, I had proved to the world during my four years in the Senate..that I can hack it. |
3. a. To roughen (a grindstone). b. To dress (stone) with a hack-hammer.
| 1862 Athenæum 30 Aug. 264 Each grindstone, when new, must itself be rough-ground into shape by the workman; and afterwards, perhaps twice or thrice a day, its worn surface must be fresh roughened for use..processes of ‘razing’ and ‘hacking’, as they are called. |
4. Applied to various agricultural operations involving cutting or chopping; as, to break up the surface of the ground, to hoe in seed, to cut up by the roots, to reap pease, vetches, or the like.
| 1620 Markham Farew. Husb. ii. viii. (1668) 4 When you have thus hacked all your ground, and broke in pieces all hard crusts and roughness of the swarth. 1660 Sharrock Vegetables 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. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 326 To Hack, that is to cut up Pease or other haw[m]y stuff by the Roots, or to cut nimbly any thing. a 1722 Lisle Observ. Husb. 36 (E.D.S.) Hacking is breaking the clots abroad after [the lime] is sown. 1807 Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 141 The wheat sown nine or ten pecks to the acre, and hacked in. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxi. 541 It does not seem that the scythe was used for harvest-works, except..for hacking peas. 1888 Berksh. Gloss., Hack, to fag or reap vetches, peas, or beans. |
5. a. To hoe or plough up (the soil) into ridges: cf. hack n.1 3. b. To rake (hay) into rows. dial.
| 1744–50 W. Ellis Mod. Husb. III. viii. 36 (E.D.S.) Combing is also called hacking. 1848 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IX. i. 21 [The grass] is ‘hacked’ into small rows, the hay-makers following each other. 1881 Leicestersh. Gloss. s.v. Hay, The grass..is next hacked or chopped with a quick action of the rake into windrows. |
† 6. Mus. To break (a note). Obs.
| 14.. Songs & Carols 15th C. (Percy Soc.) 101 Jankyn crakit notes an hunderid on a knot, And ȝyt he hakkyt hem smallere than wortes to the pot. c 1460 Towneley Myst. (Surtees) 111 Wille ye here how thay hak, oure syre, lyst, croyne. Ibid. 116 Say, what was his song? hard ye not how he crakyd it? Thre brefes to a long. Ter. Pastor. Yee, mary, he hakt it. 1496 [see hacking vbl. n. 2]. |
† 7. fig. To mangle or ‘make a hash of’ (words) in utterance. Also absol. Obs.
| [a 1555 Latimer in Strype Eccl. Mem. II. v. 31 [He would] so hawk it [a homily] and chop it that it were as good for them to be without it.] 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iii. i. 79 Let them keepe their limbs whole, and hack our English. 1600 Holland Livy xxxviii. xiv. 991 Hacking and hewing his words, as if hee had not been able to speake them out. 1676 [see hacking vbl. n. 2]. |
8. To gain unauthorized access to (computer files, etc., or information held in one). colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 1984 Times 7 Aug. 16/3 Some of the more popular boards have special sections for hackers. In these may be found a vast amount of information on the systems which are being hacked. 1984 Daily Tel. 3 Dec. 3/3 Timefame International..claimed that its secret identification codes had been ‘hacked’ early last month, leaving an unauthorised user free to wander through and examine hundreds of screens full of information. 1986 Ibid. 16 Apr. 2/6 [He] had told the police he hacked the system ‘to publicise British Telecom's negligence’. |
II. Intransitive senses.
9. a. To make rough cuts, to deal cutting blows. Const. at, † upon.
| c 1450 Golagros & Gaw. 980 He..Hakkit throw the hard weid, to the hede hynt. 1586 J. Hooker Girald. Irel. in Holinshed II. 149/1 Two or three hacked vpon him, & gaue him such deadlie wounds that he fell downe and died. 1719 De Foe Crusoe i. ix, I was twenty days hacking and hewing at it. 1888 Burgon Lives 12 Gd. Men II. ix. 212 A joint of lamb was being hacked at by the College Dean. |
b. Here perh., in a fig. or transf. sense, belong the following, transl. the Vulgate molestus esse, to be troublesome or grievous.
(But Stratmann takes it as a distinct verb.)
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter xxxiv. [xxxv.] 13 Whils þai to me ware Hackande [Vulg. molesti essent]. Ibid. liv. 4 [lv. 3] In wrath to me hakand war þai [molesti erant]. |
10. fig. † to hack after, to aim at, strive for (obs.). to hack at, to imitate (dial.).
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xix. 399 Þat is my kynde, And nouȝte hakke [1393 to hacke] after holynesse. a 1420 Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 929 Upon this wofulle thought I hak and hewe. 1828 Craven Dial., Hack at, to imitate. |
11. Of the teeth: To chatter. Obs. exc. dial.
| c 1320 Cast. Love 1640 (Halliw.) Ther shull..here tethe togedur hacke and shake. 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. Jas. 39 Theyr teeth hacked in theyr heade, they were staruen for colde. 1844 S. Bamford Life of Radical 35, I heard his teeth hacking in his head. |
12. a. To hesitate in speech; to stammer. Cf. hacker v. 2. Obs. exc. dial.
| 1553 T. Wilson Rhet. 62 Hackyng and hemmyng as though our wittes..were a woll gatheryng. 1604 Middleton Father Hubburd's T. Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 54 Yours, If you read without spelling or hacking, T. M. 1884 Jefferies Life of Fields (1891) 155 If any one hacks and haws in speaking, it is called ‘hum-dawing’. |
† b. trans. to hack out, to stammer out. Obs.
| 1631 R. Brathwait Whimzies 49 If any..be admitted to his clergy, and by helpe of a..prompter, hacke out his necke⁓verse. a 1682 Sir T. Browne Tracts 133 Present Parisians can hardly hack out those few lines of the league between Charles and Lewis..yet remaining in old French. |
† 13. To hesitate, to haggle. Obs.
| 1587 Churchyard Worth. Wales (1776) 95 They hacke not long about the thing they sell. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage viii. viii. 783 [He] doth according to his wit, without hacking professe Hakluit..his greatest benefactor. |
14. To cough with short, dry, oft-repeated cough.
| 1802 Beddoes Hygëia II. 14 Marianne..has been hacking all the afternoon. Do tell her of some little thing that is good against a cough. 1886 S. W. Linc. Gloss. s.v., He has been hacking like that all night. |
15. a. To practise hacking (hacking vbl. n. 1 d). colloq. (orig. U.S.).
| 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 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. 1986 New Scientist 1 May 25/3 Gold and Shifreen argued that they had hacked to draw attention to the risks of poor security on a system carrying financial transactions. |
b. To break into a computer system by hacking. colloq.
| 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. 1986 TeleLink Sept.–Oct. 25/2 Tom's bank computer was hacked into and his car loan repayments placed in a suspense account, opened specially by the hackers for that purpose. |
▪ VII. hack, v.2
[f. hack n.2]
1. trans. To place (bricks) in rows upon hacks or drying frames.
| 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. II. 1046 They [bricks] are sundried or hacked and temporarily covered with a thatching of straw to protect them. 1884 C. T. Davis Manuf. Bricks, etc. 126 Each man ‘takes in his share’, and carefully hacks them in the drying shed. Ibid. 221 Pressed bricks are seldom hacked on edge in the sheds, but are laid flatwise. |
2. Falconry. To keep (young hawks) ‘at hack’ or in a state of partial liberty.
| 1883 Salvin & Brodrick Falconry Gloss. 150 Short-winged Hawks are not hacked; old Falcons are sometimes, when out of health. 1892 Coursing & Falconry (Badm. Libr.) 224 If hacking such hawks was not formerly practised. |
▪ VIII. hack, v.3
[f. hack n.3]
1. trans. To make a hack of, to put to indiscriminate or promiscuous use; to make common, vulgar, or stale, by such treatment; to hackney. Also to hack about, hack to death.
| 1745 Eliza Heywood Female Spectator (1748) II. 286 Bred up to the tumbling art..and hacked about at all the petty wells near London. 1762 C. Denis in St. James's Mag. I. 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' Gaz. 14 Dec. 3/2 [An] argument..which is being hacked to death in all the Radical newspapers. |
2. To employ as a literary hack, hire for hack-work.
| 1813 Scott Let. to Lady L. Stuart 28 Apr. in Lockhart, If he takes the opinion of a hacked old author like myself. 1829 ― Jrnl. 16 Apr., For being hacked, what is it but another word for being an author? |
3. a. trans. To employ (a horse) as a hack or road-horse. b. intr. To ride on horseback at ordinary pace, to ride on the road; distinguished from cross-country or military riding.
| 1857 Lawrence Guy Liv. 64 (Hoppe) He asked her if she would lend him Bella Donna to hack to cover. 1891 Riding & Polo (Badm. Libr.) 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. 1894 Field 9 June p. xli/1 [These] horses have not been trained only hacked and carefully hunted with harriers and foxhounds. |
4. intr. To ride in a ‘hack’ or cab. U.S.
| 1879 Philad. 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? |
¶ The sense of hack in Shakes. Merry W. ii. i. 52, ‘These knights will hack’, is doubtful. The senses, To be common or vulgar; to turn prostitute; to have to do with prostitutes; and ‘to become vile and vulgar’ (Johnson and Nares), have been suggested; but the history and chronology of this verb, and of the n. whence it is derived, appear to make these impossible.
▪ IX. † hack, v.4
[Cf. hack n.5]
= hackle v.3
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 39 Flax..combed and hacked upon an iron combe. |
▪ X. hack
obs. form of hake, n.1 and n.4