HACK

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does hack mean? 

• HACK (noun)
  The noun HACK has 8 senses:

1. one who works hard at boring tasks

2. a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends

3. a mediocre and disdained writer

4. a tool (as a hoe or pick or mattock) used for breaking up the surface of the soil

5. a car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers where they want to go in exchange for money

6. an old or over-worked horse

7. a horse kept for hire

8. a saddle horse used for transportation rather than sport etc.

  Familiarity information: HACK used as a noun is common.

• HACK (verb)
  The verb HACK has 8 senses:

1. cut with a hacking tool

2. be able to manage or manage successfully

3. cut away

4. kick on the arms

5. kick on the shins

6. fix a computer program piecemeal until it works

7. significantly cut up a manuscript

8. cough spasmodically

  Familiarity information: HACK used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HACK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

One who works hard at boring tasks

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

drudge; hack; hacker

Hypernyms ("hack" is a kind of...):

unskilled person (a person who lacks technical training)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hack"):

plodder; slogger (someone who works slowly and monotonously for long hours)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

hack; machine politician; political hack; ward-heeler

Hypernyms ("hack" is a kind of...):

pol; political leader; politician; politico (a person active in party politics)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A mediocre and disdained writer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

hack; hack writer; literary hack

Hypernyms ("hack" is a kind of...):

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Holonyms ("hack" is a member of...):

Grub Street (the world of literary hacks)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A tool (as a hoe or pick or mattock) used for breaking up the surface of the soil

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("hack" is a kind of...):

tool (an implement used in the practice of a vocation)

Derivation:

hack (cut with a hacking tool)

hack (cut away)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers where they want to go in exchange for money

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

cab; hack; taxi; taxicab

Hypernyms ("hack" is a kind of...):

auto; automobile; car; machine; motorcar (a motor vehicle with four wheels; usually propelled by an internal combustion engine)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hack"):

gypsy cab (a taxicab that cruises for customers although it is licensed only to respond to calls)

minicab (a minicar used as a taxicab)

Holonyms ("hack" is a member of...):

fleet (group of motor vehicles operating together under the same ownership)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An old or over-worked horse

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Synonyms:

hack; jade; nag; plug

Hypernyms ("hack" is a kind of...):

Equus caballus; horse (solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A horse kept for hire

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("hack" is a kind of...):

Equus caballus; horse (solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times)

Sense 8

Meaning:

A saddle horse used for transportation rather than sport etc.

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("hack" is a kind of...):

mount; riding horse; saddle horse (a lightweight horse kept for riding only)

• HACK (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they hack    ... he / she / it hacks   
Past simple: hacked   
Past participle: hacked   
-ing form: hacking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cut with a hacking tool

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

chop; hack

Hypernyms (to "hack" is one way to...):

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "hack"):

ax; axe (chop or split with an ax)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sentence example:

The chefs hack the vegetables

Derivation:

hack (a tool (as a hoe or pick or mattock) used for breaking up the surface of the soil)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be able to manage or manage successfully

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

cut; hack

Context example:

she could not cut the long days in the office

Hypernyms (to "hack" is one way to...):

contend; cope; deal; get by; grapple; make do; make out; manage (succeed in doing, achieving, or producing (something) with the limited or inadequate means available)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cut away

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

he hacked his way through the forest

Hypernyms (to "hack" is one way to...):

cut (separate with or as if with an instrument)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

hack (a tool (as a hoe or pick or mattock) used for breaking up the surface of the soil)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Kick on the arms

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "hack" is one way to...):

foul (commit a foul; break the rules)

Domain category:

basketball; basketball game; hoops (a game played on a court by two opposing teams of 5 players; points are scored by throwing the ball through an elevated horizontal hoop)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 5

Meaning:

Kick on the shins

Classified under:

Verbs of fighting, athletic activities

Hypernyms (to "hack" is one way to...):

foul (commit a foul; break the rules)

Domain category:

rugby; rugby football; rugger (a form of football played with an oval ball)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 6

Meaning:

Fix a computer program piecemeal until it works

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

hack; hack on

Context example:

I'm not very good at hacking but I'll give it my best

Hypernyms (to "hack" is one way to...):

program; programme (write a computer program)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

hacker (a programmer for whom computing is its own reward; may enjoy the challenge of breaking into other computers but does no harm)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Significantly cut up a manuscript

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

cut up; hack

Hypernyms (to "hack" is one way to...):

edit; redact (prepare for publication or presentation by correcting, revising, or adapting)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sentence example:

They won't hack the story

Sense 8

Meaning:

Cough spasmodically

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

hack; whoop

Context example:

The patient with emphysema is hacking all day

Hypernyms (to "hack" is one way to...):

cough (exhale abruptly, as when one has a chest cold or congestion)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

He has been laid up with a hack, and once he slipped his knee-cap, but that was nothing.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But a reporter's work is all hack from morning till night, is the one paramount thing of life.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The body of the French squire had been dragged out by them and hacked to pieces.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There were four protruding fingers and a horrid red, spongy surface where the thumb should have been. It had been hacked or torn right out from the roots.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Inside the mill were twenty of the miller’s men hewing a stone, and as they went “Hick hack, hick hack, hick hack,” the mill went “Click clack, click clack, click clack.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

A heroine in a hack post-chaise is such a blow upon sentiment, as no attempt at grandeur or pathos can withstand.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Protect client and customer privacy by asking IT if they have inserted the most up-to-date software and malware protection to prevent hacking.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

He gets a dry, hacking cough as the dead tissue sloughs away, and dies the following summer of pneumonia, wondering what it's all about.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

But I can guess how it was; everybody says that he is eat up with pride, and I dare say he had heard somehow that Mrs. Long does not keep a carriage, and had come to the ball in a hack chaise.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Her readers were not particular about such trifles as grammar, punctuation, and probability, and Mr. Dashwood graciously permitted her to fill his columns at the lowest prices, not thinking it necessary to tell her that the real cause of his hospitality was the fact that one of his hacks, on being offered higher wages, had basely left him in the lurch.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)