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hack 2 (hăk)
Share:
n.
1. A horse used for riding or driving; a hackney.
2. A worn-out horse for hire; a jade.
3.
a. One who undertakes unpleasant or distasteful tasks for money or reward; a hireling.
b. A writer hired to produce routine or commercial writing.
4. A carriage or hackney for hire.
5. Informal
a. A taxicab.
b. See hackie.
v. hacked, hack·ing, hacks
v.tr.
1. To let out (a horse) for hire.
2. To make banal or hackneyed with indiscriminate use.
v.intr.
1. To drive a taxicab for a living.
2. To work for hire as a writer.
3. To ride on horseback at an ordinary pace.
adj.
1. By, characteristic of, or designating routine or commercial writing: hack prose.
2. Hackneyed; banal.
Phrasal Verb:
hack out Informal
To produce (written material, for example), especially hastily or routinely: hacked out a weekly column.
[Short for HACKNEY.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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