hack
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /hæk/
rhymes: -æk
Forms: form: hacks
Etymology: Abbreviation of hackney (“an ordinary horse”), probably from place name Hackney.
Senses: examples: text: A cold wind, a piercing rain, and a bad road, with a worse hack (for his own horses had been knocked up), rendered more acute the misery which he, as a parted lover, was bound to feel.
ref: 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Arrived at Home”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 84:
glosses: A horse for hire, especially one which is old and tired.
examples: text: I got by on hack work for years before I finally published my novel.
text: [W]e know how the life of any hack, legal or literary, in a curacy, or in a marching regiment, or at a merchant’s desk, is dull of routine, and tedious of description.
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 37, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
glosses: A person, often a journalist, hired to do routine work.
glosses: Someone who is available for hire; hireling, mercenary.
glosses: The driver of a taxicab (hackney cab).
examples: text: On horse, on foot, in hacks and gilded chariots.
ref: 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
text: The interurban wasn't running because of the holiday, and the hacks, if there were any, would have been clustered round the Post Tavern at the other end of town.
ref: 1993, TC Boyle, The Road to Wellville, Penguin, published 1994, page 227:
glosses: A vehicle let for hire; originally, a hackney cab, now typically a taxicab.
examples: 1920s, Jimmie Rodgers, Frankie and Johnny
Bring out the rubber-tired buggie/Bring out the rubber-tired hack/I'm takin' my Johnny to the graveyard/But I ain't gonna bring him back
glosses: A hearse.
examples: text: Dason is nothing but a two-bit hack.
text: He's nothing but the typical hack writer.
topics: authorship
broadcasting
communications
film
journalism
literature
media
publishing
television
writing
glosses: An untalented writer.
glosses: One who is professionally successful despite producing mediocre work. (Usually applied to persons in a creative field.)
glosses: A talented writer-for-hire, paid to put others' thoughts into felicitous language.
topics: government
politics
qualifier: slightly derogatory
glosses: A political agitator.
qualifier: student politics
glosses: A person who frequently canvasses for votes, either directly or by appearing to continuously act with the ulterior motive of furthering their political career.
examples: text: Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed, / Who long was a bookseller's hack.
ref: 1767, Oliver Goldsmith, Epitaph on Edward Purdon:
glosses: A writer who hires himself out for any sort of literary work; an overworked man; a drudge.
glosses: A procuress.
Synonyms: sense: A saddle horse which is old and tired
word: nag
Coordinate terms: sense: worthless horse
word: bum
Derived terms: apahack
away in a hack
hackable
hack cab
hack chaise
hackdom
hackette
hackie
Hackman
hackman
hackwork
letterhack
megahack