Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Language: Old English
Origin: haccian

hack

1 verb
     
Related topics: Horses, Computers
hack1
1 [intransitive and transitive] to cut something roughly or violently
hack (away) at something
She hacked away at the ice, trying to make a hole.
hack something off/down etc
Whole forests have been hacked down.
hack your way through/into something
He hacked his way through the undergrowth.
Both men had been hacked to death (=killed using large knives).
2TD [intransitive and transitive] to secretly find a way of getting information from someone else's computer or changing information on it
hack into
Somebody hacked into the company's central database.
He managed to hack the code.
 ➔ hacker
3

can't hack something

informal to feel that you cannot continue to do something that is difficult or boring:
I've been doing this job for years, but I just can't hack it anymore.
4 [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] British EnglishDSH to ride a horse along roads or through the country
5 [intransitive] to cough in a loud unpleasant way

hack somebody off

phrasal verb
to annoy someone:
His attitude really hacks me off!
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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