Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The operation of working over the faces of rough or worn grindstones with a hack-hammer; also, a similar treatment of the faces of polishing-wheels with a sharp tool of a like kind.
- n. In masonry, the separation of a course of stones into two smaller courses, when there are not enough large stones to form a single course.
- n. In 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 used in cutting and polishing gems.
- Short and interrupted: as, a hacking cough. Also hacky.
- n. In brick-making, piling bricks for drying.
- n. In pathology, the emission of a succession of short coughs.
- n. In massage, the act of striking the muscles with the side of the hand.
Wiktionary
- adj. Short and interrupted, broken, jerky; hacky.
- n. computing Playful solving of technical work that requires deep understanding, especially of a computer system.
- n. computing Unauthorized attempts to bypass the security mechanisms of an information system or network. See also cracker.
- n. pathology A dry coughing; the emission of a succession of short coughs.
- n. sports, soccer, rugby A kick in the shins.
- n. massage The act of striking the muscles with the side of the hand.
- n. UK, countable A riding or journey on horseback. (Plural hackings.)
- n. obsolete The operation of working over the faces of rough or worn grindstones with a hack-hammer.
- n. 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.
- n. obsolete 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.
- n. obsolete The piling of bricks for drying.
- v. present participle of hack.
Examples
“As a computer enthusiast I initially 'brushed off' the term hacking being thrown around by the media.”
The Huffington Post: Gary Lee Walters: Phone Hacking - Not Just a Phone Crime?
“The term hacking, though now often used to indicate illegal activity, was originally associated with tinkering and experimentation—a tradition that Facebook encourages.”
“IT DOESN'T, the media idiots just use the term hacking to sesationalize the headline to increase sales.”
“When you hear the term hacking, or hackathon, the first image that probably comes to mind is a handful of programmers staying up all night long, fueled by Mountain Dew and Twinkies, hacking away on laptops at arcane code.”
“How ethical hacking fits into Windows security tests the term hacking might arouse thoughts of convoluted plots in big-budget spy movies, the type of hacking that is most useful to server administrators is far different.”
SearchWinIT: News on enterprise Windows platforms and applications
“I do not know where the term hacking actually starts, nor does anyone else for that matter.”
“Slide 4: The term hacking has a lot of different meanings.”
“But there is no getting away from the fact that the word "hacking" is now irreversibly connected with something malign in the minds of the public at large.”
The Huffington Post: Loz Kaye: There's Hacking and Then There's Hacking -- LulzSec vs NewsCorp
“BTW, I have over a decade of engineering experience working with linear accelerators, so I do understand what's involved, and trial and error engineering is what we call "hacking" used to mean "try everything until it works".”
“Mohan Koo, chief executive at security firm Dtex, said the report would encourage more companies to speak out and pool experiences to combat what he calls the hacking epidemic.”
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hacking.

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