hack
noun
- A tool for chopping.
- A hacking blow.
- A gouge or notch made by such a blow.
- A dry cough.
- A hacking; a catch in speaking; a short, broken cough.
- A try, an attempt.
- The foothold traditionally cut into the ice from which the person who throws the rock pushes off for delivery.
- A mattock or a miner's pickaxe.
- An expedient, temporary solution, such as a small patch or change to code, meant to be replaced with a more elegant solution at a later date.
- An interesting technical achievement, particularly in computer programming.
- A trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method to increase productivity, efficiency or ease.
"Putting your phone in a sandwich bag when you go to the beach is such a great hack."
- An illegal attempt to gain access to a computer network.
- A video game or any computer software that has been altered from its original state.
- Time check.
- A swing of the bat at a pitched ball by the batter.
"He took a few hacks, but the pitcher finally struck him out."
- A kick on the shins in football.
- Confinement of an officer to their stateroom as a punishment.
verb
- To chop or cut down in a rough manner.
"They hacked the brush down and made their way through the jungle."
- To cough noisily.
"This cold is awful. I can't stop hacking."
- To withstand or put up with a difficult situation.
"Can you hack it out here with no electricity or running water?"
- 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.
"I hacked in a fix for this bug, but we'll still have to do a real fix later."
- To accomplish a difficult programming task.
"He can hack like no one else and make the program work as expected."
- To work with something on an intimately technical level.
"I'm currently hacking distributed garbage collection."
- (by extension) To apply a trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method to something to increase productivity, efficiency or ease.
"I read up on dating tips so I can hack my sex life."
- To hack into; to gain unauthorized access to (a computer system, e.g., a website, or network) by manipulating code.
- (by extension) To gain unauthorised access to a computer or online account belonging to (a person or organisation).
"When I logged into the social network, I discovered I'd been hacked."
- To strike an opponent's leg with one's hockey stick.
"He's going to the penalty box after hacking the defender in front of the goal."
- To make a flailing attempt to hit the puck with a hockey stick.
"There's a scramble in front of the net as the forwards are hacking at the bouncing puck."
- To swing at a pitched ball.
"He went to the batter's box hacking."
- (soccer and rugby) To kick (a player) on the shins.
- To strike in a frantic movement.
- To strike lightly as part of tapotement massage.
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