hack

Meaning

1. To chop or cut down in a rough manner.
2. To withstand or put up with a difficult situation.
3. To make a quick code change to patch a computer program, often one that, while being effective, is inelegant or makes the program harder to maintain.
4. To accomplish a difficult programming task.
5. (slang) To work with something on an intimately technical level.
6. (colloquial) To apply a trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method to something to increase productivity, efficiency or ease.
7. (slang) To hack into; to gain unauthorized access to (a computer system, e.g., a website, or network) by manipulating code.
8. (slang) To gain unauthorised access to a computer or online account belonging to (a person or organisation).
9. To cheat by using unauthorized modifications.
10. To strike an opponent with one's hockey stick, typically on the leg but occasionally and more seriously on the back, arm, head, etc.
11. To make a flailing attempt to hit the puck with a hockey stick.
12. To swing at a pitched ball.
13. To kick (a player) on the shins.
14. To strike in a frantic movement.
15. To strike lightly as part of tapotement massage.

cut

hack on

literary hack

political hack

ward-heeler

old horse

hack writer

hang in there

intrude into

leathery meat

quiten

shoot dead

cut in pieces

taxi cab

tourist car

shoulder in

gad picker

incised wound

cut wound

pick mattock

mattock hoe

chop into pieces

hack poet

chop off

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/hæk/

From Middle English hacken, hakken, from Old English *haccian (“to hack”), from Proto-West Germanic *hakkōn, from Proto-Germanic *hakkōną (“to chop; hoe; hew”), from Proto-Indo-European *keg-, *keng- (“to be sharp; peg; hook; handle”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian häkje (“to hack”), West Frisian hakje (“to hack”), Dutch hakken (“to chop up; hack”), German hacken (“to chop; hack; hoe”), Danish hakke (“to chop”), Swedish hacka (“to hack; chop”), French hacher (“to chop”). The computer senses date back to at least 1955 when it initially referred to creative problem solving. By 1963, the negative connotations of “black hat” or malicious hacking had become associated with telephone hacking (cf. phreaking).