Learning / English Dictionary

HACK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

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)

Sense 2

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 3

Meaning:

An old or over-worked horse

Synonyms:

hack; jade; nag; plug

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

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

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

Sense 4

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

cab; hack; taxi; taxicab

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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 5

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 6

Meaning:

One who works hard at boring tasks

Synonyms:

drudge; hack; hacker

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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 7

Meaning:

A mediocre and disdained writer

Synonyms:

hack; hack writer; literary hack

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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 8

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

hack; machine politician; political hack; ward-heeler

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

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

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cough spasmodically

Example:

The patient with emphysema is hacking all day

Synonyms:

hack; whoop

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

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

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

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Significantly cut up a manuscript

Synonyms:

cut up; hack

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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 3

Meaning:

Fix a computer program piecemeal until it works

Example:

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

Synonyms:

hack; hack on

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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 4

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 5

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 6

Meaning:

Cut with a hacking tool

Synonyms:

chop; hack

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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 7

Meaning:

Cut away

Example:

he hacked his way through the forest

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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 8

Meaning:

Be able to manage or manage successfully

Example:

she could not cut the long days in the office

Synonyms:

cut; hack

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

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

Credits

 Context examples: 

During the twenty-five days spent on "The Shame of the Sun," he sold hack- work to the extent of six dollars and fifty cents.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Yet there is a difference betwixt a friar's hack and a warrior's destrier.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I worry that a computer problem—or if you oversee customer names, a hack of company data—could cost you quite a bit. Secure your data.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

You have a dry, hacking cough—the sort Mr.—er—Haythorne so aptly described.

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

With a sorry hack one uses whip and spur, sire, said Chandos; but with a horse of blood and spirit a good cavalier is gentle and soothing, coaxing rather than forcing.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

What of her anger and pent feelings, her lungs were irritated into the dry, hacking cough, and with blood-suffused face and one hand clenched against her chest, she waited for the paroxysm to pass.

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

It chanced on that very evening that Sir Nigel Loring, having supped before sunset, as was his custom, and having himself seen that Pommers and Cadsand, his two war-horses, with the thirteen hacks, the five jennets, my lady's three palfreys, and the great dapple-gray roussin, had all their needs supplied, had taken his dogs for an evening breather.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)