English▸ verb
1 [with object] cut with rough or heavy blows:
hack off the dead branches
they hacked a path through the wooded mountains
[no object] men hack at the coalface.
▪ kick wildly or roughly:
he had to race from his line to hack the ball into the stand.
2 [no object] gain unauthorized access to data in a system or computer:
they hacked into the bank's computer
[with object] someone hacked his computer from another location.
▪ program quickly and roughly.
3 [no object] cough persistently:
I was waking up in the middle of the night and coughing and hacking for hours.
4 (hack it) [usually with negative] informal manage; cope:
lots of people leave because they can't hack it.
▸ noun
1 a rough cut, blow, or stroke:
he was sure one of us was going to take a hack at him.
▪ (in sport) a kick or a stroke with a stick inflicted on another player.
▪ a notch cut in the ice, or a peg inserted, to steady the foot when delivering a stone in curling.
▪ a tool for rough striking or cutting, e.g. a mattock or a miner's pick.
▪ archaic a gash or wound.
2 informal an act of computer hacking:
the challenge of the hack itself.
▪ a piece of computer code providing a quick or inelegant solution to a particular problem:
this hack doesn't work on machines that have a firewall.
▪ a strategy or technique for managing one's time or activities more efficiently:
another hack that will save time is to cover your side mirrors with a plastic bag when freezing rain is forecast.
– ORIGIN Middle English, probably reflecting an unattested Old English verb haccian ‘cut in pieces’, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch hakken and German hacken.