1. [n]  a saddle horse used for transportation rather than sport etc.
2. [n]  a horse kept for hire
3. [n]  an old or over-worked horse
4. [n]  a car driven by a person whose job is to take passengers where they want to go in exchange for money
5. [n]  one who works hard at boring tasks
6. [n]  a mediocre and disdained writer
7. [n]  a politician who belongs to a small clique that controls a political party for private rather than public ends
8. [v]  cough spasmodically; "The patient with emphysema is hacking all day"
9. [v]  kick on the shins; in rugby
10. [v]  kick on the arms; in basketball
11. [v]  significantly cut up a manuscript
12. [v]  fix a computer program piecemeal until it works; "I'm not very good at hacking but I'll give it my best"
13. [v]  cut with a tool
14. [v]  cut away
15. [v]  informal: be able to manage or manage successfully; "I can't hack it anymore"; "she could not cut the long days in the office"

HACK is a 4 letter word that starts with H.

1. \Hack\, n. [See {Hatch} a half door.]
   1. A frame or grating of various kinds; as, a frame for
      drying bricks, fish, or cheese; a rack for feeding cattle;
      a grating in a mill race, etc.
   
   2. Unburned brick or tile, stacked up for drying.
   
   

2. \Hack\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Hacked}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Hacking}.] [OE. hakken; akin to D. hakken, G. hacken, Dan.
   hakke, Sw. hacka, and perh. to E. hew. Cf. {Hew} to cut,
   {Haggle}.]
   1. To cut irregulary, without skill or definite purpose; to
      notch; to mangle by repeated strokes of a cutting
      instrument; as, to hack a post.
   
            My sword hacked like a handsaw.       --Shak.
   
   2. Fig.: To mangle in speaking. --Shak.
   
   

3. \Hack\, v. i.
   To cough faintly and frequently, or in a short, broken
   manner; as, a hacking cough.
   
   

4. \Hack\, n.
   1. A notch; a cut. --Shak.
   
   2. An implement for cutting a notch; a large pick used in
      breaking stone.
   
   3. A hacking; a catch in speaking; a short, broken cough.
      --Dr. H. More.
   
   4. (Football) A kick on the shins. --T. Hughes.
   
   {Hack saw}, a handsaw having a narrow blade stretched in an
      iron frame, for cutting metal.
   
   

5. \Hack\, n. [Shortened fr. hackney. See {Hackney}.]
   1. A horse, hackneyed or let out for common hire; also, a
      horse used in all kinds of work, or a saddle horse, as
      distinguished from hunting and carriage horses.
   
   2. A coach or carriage let for hire; particularly, a a coach
      with two seats inside facing each other; a hackney coach.
   
            On horse, on foot, in hacks and gilded chariots.
                                                  --Pope.
   
   3. A bookmaker who hires himself out for any sort of literary
      work; an overworked man; a drudge.
   
            Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed, Who
            long was a bookseller's hack.         --Goldsmith.
   
   4. A procuress.
   
   

6. \Hack\, a.
   Hackneyed; hired; mercenary. --Wakefield.
   
   {Hack writer}, a hack; one who writes for hire. ``A vulgar
      hack writer.'' --Macaulay.
   
   

7. \Hack\, v. t.
   1. To use as a hack; to let out for hire.
   
   2. To use frequently and indiscriminately, so as to render
      trite and commonplace.
   
   
   
      The word ``remarkable'' has been so hacked of late. --J.
                                                  H. Newman.
   
   

8. \Hack\, v. i.
   1. To be exposed or offered or to common use for hire; to
      turn prostitute. --Hanmer.
   
   2. To live the life of a drudge or hack. --Goldsmith.
   
   

9. \Hack\, v. i.
   To ride or drive as one does with a hack horse; to ride at an
   ordinary pace, or over the roads, as distinguished from
   riding across country or in military fashion.
   
   

10. \Hack\, v. t. (Football)
    To kick the shins of (an opposing payer).
    
    

11. \Hack\, n. (Football)
    A kick on the shins, or a cut from a kick.
    
    
    
    

1. Originally, a quick job that produces what is needed, but not well.

2. An incredibly good, and perhaps very time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed.

3. To bear emotionally or physically. "I can't hack this heat!"

4. To work on something (typically a program). In an immediate sense: "What are you doing?" "I'm hacking TECO." In a general (time-extended) sense: "What do you do around here?" "I hack TECO." More generally, "I hack "foo"" is roughly equivalent to ""foo" is my major interest (or project)". "I hack solid-state physics." See hacking x for y.

5. To pull a prank on. See hacker.

6. To interact with a computer in a playful and exploratory rather than goal-directed way. "Whatcha up to?" "Oh, just hacking."

7. Short for hacker.

8. See nethack.

9. (MIT) To explore the basements, roof ledges, and steam tunnels of a large, institutional building, to the dismay of Physical Plant workers and (since this is usually performed at educational institutions) the Campus Police. This activity has been found to be eerily similar to playing adventure games such as dungeons and dragons and zork. See also vadding.

See also neat hack, real hack.

[jargon file]