Verb

Infinitive to hack

Third person singular hacks

Simple past hacked

Past participle hacked

Present participle hacking

to hack (third-person singular simple present hacks, present participle hacking, simple past and past participle hacked)

1. To chop or cut down in a rough manner.

   They hacked the brush down and made their way through the jungle.

2. To cough noisily.

   This cold is awful. I can't stop hacking.

3. To withstand or put up with a difficult situation.

   Can you hack it out here with no electricity or running water?

4. (slang, computing) To hack into; to gain unauthorized access to a computer system (e.g. website) or network by manipulating code; a crack.
5. (computing) To accomplish a difficult programming task.

   He can hack like no one else and make the program work as expected.

6. (computing) To make a quick code change to patch a computer program, often one that is inelegant or that 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.

7. To work on an intimately technical level.

   I'm currently hacking distributed garbage collection.

8. (ice hockey) 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.

9. (ice hockey) 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.

10. (baseball) To swing at a pitched ball.

    He went to the batter's box hacking.

Derived terms

• hack down
• hack in
• hack into

• hack up
• hackability
• hacker

Synonyms

• (gain unauthorized access): crack
• frob
• tweak

Hack