English

Adjective

hacking ‎(comparative more hacking, superlative most hacking)

1. Short and interrupted, broken, jerky; hacky.

   A hacking cough. A hacking laugh. A hacking breath. A hacking cry.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “chapter XX”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     “So now everything's fine.” I uttered a hacking laugh. “No,” I said, in answer to a query from Aunt Dahlia. “I have not accidentally swallowed my tonsils, I was merely laughing hackingly. Ironical that the young blister should say that everything is fine, for at this very moment disaster stares us in the eyeball.”

Usage notes

Most non-creative collocations are the phrases given as examples.

Derived terms

• hacking cough
• hackingly

Noun

hacking ‎(uncountable)

1. (computing) Playful solving of technical work that requires deep understanding, especially of a computer system.

   From hacker: "A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular." — RFC 1392

2. (computing) Unauthorized attempts to bypass the security mechanisms of an information system or network. See also cracker.
3. (pathology) A dry coughing; the emission of a succession of short coughs.
4. (sports, chiefly American football, soccer, rugby) A kick in the shins.
5. (massage) The act of striking the muscles with the side of the hand.
6. (Britain, countable) A riding or journey on horseback. (Plural hackings.)
7. (obsolete) The operation of working over the faces of rough or worn grindstones with a hack-hammer.
8. (obsolete, masonry) The separation of a course of stones into two smaller courses, when there are not enough large stones to form a single course.
9. (obsolete, gem-cutting) The cuts and grooves made in the metal laps by holding the cutting edge of a steel blade against them while in motion, for the purpose of providing receptacles or pockets for the powders using in cutting and polishing gems.
10. (obsolete, brick-making) The piling of bricks for drying.

Derived terms

• hacking coat, hacking jacket, hacking-seat
• hacking run

Verb

hacking

1. present participle of hack

Anagrams

• ka-ching

See also

• pirate

References

• hacking in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911 (Vol. IV, p. 2675–2676; supplement Vol. XI, p. 559)
• “hacking” in Harrap's Shorter, 2006, p. 416
• “hacking” in Concise English Dictionary, Wordsworth, 2007, p. 405
• “hacking” at Wordnik

French

Noun

hacking m ‎(plural hackings)

1. hacking

Spanish

Noun

hacking m ‎(uncountable)

1. (computing) hacking