hack 
2. To dress off the more prominent parts of 
(stone) with a hack-hammer. 3. To chap ; 
frost-bite, as the hands. [Prov. Eng.] 4. To 
kick, as one player another in foot-ball ; bruise 
by kicking. 5. To break up, as clods of earth 
after plowing. [Prov. Eng.] 
II. intrans. 1. To chop; cut: as, to keep 
hacking away at a log. 2. To hop on one leg. 
[Prov. Eng.] 3. To toil; work laboriously; 
strive to attain something. 
For ich couthe selle 
Bothe dregges and draf and drawe at one hole 
Thicke ale and thynne ale and that is my kynde, 
And nat to hacke after holynesae. 
Piers Plowman (C), xxii. 403. 
4. To stammer; stutter. Also hacker. [Prov. 
E n g.] 5, To emit short sharp sounds in 
coughing; cough slightly and frequently; be 
affected by a short, broken, dry cough. Com- 
pare hawk*. 6. To chatter with cold. [Prov. 
Eng.] 
hack 1 (hak), . [< late ME. hak, a pick or hoe ; 
= D. hak, a hoe, chop, also heel (> G. hacke, a 
hoe, mattock, hatchet, also heel), = Dan. hak, 
notch, hakke, pickax, mattock, = Sw. hak, 
notch; from the verb.] 1. A cut; a notch. 
Look you what hacks are on his helmet ! 
Shak., T. and C., i. 2. 
Sick unco' hacks, and deadly whacks, 
I never saw the like. 
Battle of Tranent-Muir (Child's Ballads, VII. 173). 
2. A cut in a tree to indicate a particular 
spot, or a series of cuts made in a number of 
trees as a guide through woods; a blazed line. 
[U. 8.] 
Curt and I went into the woods to cut a hack as a guide 
in hunting. Forest and Stream, XXVIII. 179. 
3. la. foot-ball, a kick on the shin ; also, a bruise 
produced by kicking. 
Those who had them to show, pulled up their trousers 
and showed the hacks they had received in the good cause 
[a foot-ball scrimmage]. 
T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, 1. 6. 
4. A stroke on one's own account ; turn at doing 
something: as, everyone feels obliged to take 
aftacfcatit. [Colloq.] 5. A blunt ax; a cut- 
ting-tool for notching or hacking trees to bleed 
them, as in gathering the sap of the maple. 
6. A pick ; a pickax ; a mattock ; a spade ; a 
hack-iron. [Prov. Eng.] 
In different districts it [the pick] is called either a man- 
drel, pike, slitter, mattock, or hack. 
Morgans, Mining Tools, p. 72. 
7f. The lights, liver, and heart of a boar or 
swine. Holme, 1688. (Halliwell.) 8+. Broken 
or hesitating speech. 
He speaks . . . with so many hacks and hesitations. 
Dr. H. More, Mystery of Godliness, p. 270. 
hack 2 (hak), n. [Also dial, heck; the unassibi- 
lated form of hatch 1 , q. v.] 1. A grated frame. 
Specifically (a) A grated door; a hatch. (6) A frame of 
wooden bars in the tail-race of a mill, (c) A rack for feed- 
ing cattle, (d) A frame for drying fish or cheese, (e) A 
place for drying bricks before they are burned. (/) A row 
of molded bricks laid out to dry. 
Usually they [bricks] are hacked about eight courses 
high on the edge, and the hacks kept separate, to allow 
circulation of air. C. T. Davis, Bricks and Tiles, p. 126. 
2. In falconry, partial liberty. See the extract. 
Hack. The state of partial liberty in which young 
hawks must always be kept at first loose to fly about 
where they like, but punctually fed early in the morning 
and again in the day, to keep them from seeking food for 
themselves as long as possible. Encyc. Brit., IX. 7. 
hack 2 (hak), v. t. [<hackV, n.] To place (bricks) 
in rows to dry before burning. 
Pressed bricks are seldom hacked on edge in the sheds, 
but are laid flatwise. C. T. Davis, Bricks and Tiles, p. 221. 
hack 3 (hak), n. [Var. of hagV, ult. of haw 1 , q. v.] 
A haw ; a hedge. [Prov. Eug.] 
hack 4 (hak), 11. and a. [Abbr. of hackney, q. v.] 
1. n. 1. A horse kept for hire ; hence, ahorse 
adapted for general service, such as that re- 
quired of horses kept for hire, especially for 
driving and riding. 
He was riding on a haick they ca'd Souple Sam, ... a 
blood-bay beast very ill o' the spavin. 
Scott, Guy Mannering, xi. 
Under the term hack may be ranked cover hack, park 
hack, cob, pony, and . . . saddle horses of all kinds save 
hunters and racers. Eiicyc. Brit., XII. 190. 
2. A carriage kept for hire ; a hackney-coach. 
I was the other day driving in a hack thro' Gerard street. 
Spectator, No. 510. 
"We must have a carriage," he added with tardy wis- 
dom, hailing an empty hack. 
Howells, Their Wedding Journey, 11. 
3. A drudge; one who is overworked; espe- 
cially, a literary drudge ; a person hired to write 
according to direction or demand. 
2675 
We are the natural guardians of Mackintosh's literary 
fame ; will that not be in some degree tainted and exposed 
to ridicule, if his history is finished by a regular Pater- 
noster hark ! Sydney Smith, To John Allen. 
The last survivor of the genuine race of Grub Street 
hacks. Macaulay, Boswell's Johnson. 
4f. A procuress ; a prostitute. 
II. a. Hired; mercenary; much used or worn, 
like a hired horse; hackneyed: as, a hack writer. 
Hack preachers employed in the service of defaulters 
and absentees. Wakefleld, Memoirs. 
Dryden, like Lessing, was a hack writer, and was proud, 
as an honest man has a right to be, of being able to get 
his bread by his brains. 
Lowell, Among my Books, 1st ser., p. 71. 
hack 4 (hak), v. [< hack*, .] I. intrans. 1. To 
ride on the road ; ride with an ordinary horse 
or pace : opposed to cross-country riding, caval- 
ry riding, etc. 
Hitherto, only road or park riding has been considered, 
and, with wise people, hacking (except hacking to cover, 
or in the performance of a journey against time) means 
progressing at a strictly moderate pace. 
Encyc. Brit., XII. 196. 
2. To drive in a hack. [Colloq.] 
Are we more content to depend on street cars and walk- 
ing, with the occasional alternative of haclcing at six times 
the money? Philadelphia Times, May 8, 1879. 
3f. To be common or vulgar; turn prostitute; 
have to do with prostitutes. Shak. 
II. trans. To let out for hire : as, to hack a 
horse. 
hack 5 t (hak), n. [Abbr. of hackbut.] Same as 
hackbut. 
hackamore (hak'a-mor), n. [Origin obscure.] 
A form of halter with a nose-piece that can be 
tightened, so that it may serve instead of the 
head-piece of a bridle. [U. S.] 
hack-barrow (hak'bar"6), n. A large wheel- 
barrow used to carry green bricks from brick- 
making machines to the drying-sheds. 
hackberry (hak'ber"i), n. ; pi. hackberries (-iz). 
[An alteration of hagberry, the bird-cherry: see 
hagberry.] 1. Same as hagberry. Also called 
bird-cherry. 2. An American tree, Celtis occi- 
dentalis, natural order Urticacew, allied to the 
elm. It ranges from Canada to Florida and west to Texas, 
but is most typical and abundant in the Mississippi valley. 
It has a number of well-marked forms, some of which were 
hacking 
Rom. forms were extremely various, the orig. 
form and meaning not beinjj commonly known; 
the E. form nearest the orig. is hackbush ; all 
ult. of LG. or HG. origin: OFlem. haeckbuyse = 
MD. haeckbusse, D. haakbus = MLG. hakebusse, 
hakelbusse = MHG. hakenbuchse, G. hakenbilchse 
= ODan. hagebossc = Sw. hakabyssa, a hackbut, 
lit. a ' hook-gun,' so called because fired from 
a forked rest, or because of the curved form of 
the stock: < MD. haecke, D. haak = MLG. hake 
= Q. haken = E. hake 1 , a hook, + MD. buyse, 
buise, D. busse, bus = MLG. busse = G. buchse, 
a gun, a box, etc. ; the elements are thus ult. 
hake 1 and box% = bush?, the same as the ter- 
minal element of blunderbuss, q. v.] Same as 
harquebus. 
Cross-bow and long-bow, hand-gun and hack-but, fal- 
conet and saker, he can shoot with them all. 
Scott, Monastery, xviii. 
hackbuteert (hak-bu-ter'), n. [< hackbut + 
-eer.] A harquebusier. 
He lighted the match of his bandelier, 
And woefully scorched the hackbuteer. 
Scott, L. of L. M., Ui. 21. 
hackbuttert, n. [< OF. hacquebutier, harquebut- 
tier, < hacquebute, etc., hackbut: see hackbut, 
and cf. harquebusier.] A harquebusier. 
And his sonne sir William Winter that now is, and sun- 
drie other capteins, hauing vnder their charge two hun- 
dred hackbutters. Holinshed, Hist. Scotland, an. 1544. 
hacked (hakt), p. a. In her., indented with the 
indents embowed : said of the edge of any bear- 
ing. An edge hacked is represented as if chopped with 
a hatchet, the small pieces between the Indents curled 
upward as if by the force of the blow. 
hackee (hak'e), n. [Imitative of the animal's 
cry.] The common chipmunk or ground-squir- 
rel of the United States, Tamias striatus. See 
cut under chipmunk. 
hackenaiet, . An obsolete form of hackney. 
Chaucer. 
hacker 1 (hak'er), n. A tool used for making in- 
cisions in trees as channels for the passage of 
the sap ; a hack. [U. S.] 
hacker 2 (hak'er), v.i. [Freq. of hack 1 , .] Same 
as hack 1 , 4. [Prov. Eng.] 
hackery (hak'er-i), .; pi. hackeries (-iz). [Au- 
glo-Ind.,< Hind, chhakra, a cart.] 1. In Ben- 
gal, a rude two-wheeled cart drawn by oxen, 
Hackberry {Celtis occidentalism. 
I and 2, branches with male and female flowers; 3, branch with 
fruit; a, flower; b, stamen; c, fruit ; rf, fruit cut longitudinally ; t, 
embryo. 
formerly regarded as distinct species, but they are found 
to be connected by intermediate ones. That of western 
Texas, however, is regarded as a variety (reticulata). The 
hackberry sometimes becomes a large tree 4 or 5 feet in 
diameter and 80 or 100 feet high. The wood is white and 
soft, but heavy, coarse-grained, and not durable; it is 
used in the manufacture of cheap furniture, but chiefly as 
fence-timber. The fruit is an edible drape, of sweetish 
taste and light-red color, the size of a bird-cherry. Also 
called nettle-tree, hoop-ask, false elm, beaverwood, many- 
berry, and sugarberry. 
hackbolt (hak'bolt), n. [See hagden.J The 
greater shearwater, Puffinus major. [Scilly 
islands.] 
hackbusht, . A form of hackbut. Halliwell. 
hackbut (hak'but), n. [Also hacqucbut, haque- 
but, hagbut, also hackbush, hagbush; < OF. 
hacquebute, hacqiiebutte, haquebutte, hacquebut, 
aquebute, hachebute. etc., also hacquebuche, 
liaquebuche, etc. (> E. hackbush), also harquc- 
butte, arquebouste, harquebuse, arquebuse (> E. 
harquebus, arquebuse (= Sp. Pg. arcabuz = It. 
arcobugio, arcobusio, simulating area, bow, = E. 
arc 1 , arch 1 , + bugio, busio, a hole, hollow) : the 
Hackery. 
used by the natives for the transport of goods, 
etc. 2. In western India and Ceylon, a light 
covered vehicle drawn by small oxen, for the 
transportation of passengers. 
hacket (hak'et), n. [Var. of hatchet, after 
hack 1 .'} A hatchet. E. H. Knight. 
hack-file (hak'ffl), n. Alocksmiths'slitting-file. 
hack-hammer (hak'ham"er), n. An adz-like 
tool for hacking and truing grindstones. 
The lap is chiefly resorted to for removing those slight 
distortions occasioned in hardening, that are beyond the 
correction of the hack-hammer. 
0. Byrne, Artisan's Handbook, p. 71. 
hackia (hak'i-a), n. [Native name.] A valu- 
able tree, Ixora triflorum, growing in British 
Guiana. It attains a height of 30 to 60 feet, squaring 
16 to 18 inches in diameter. From the great hardness of 
the wood, it has received the name of lignum-mtce. It is 
used in making cogs and shafts, and also for furniture. 
See Ixora. 
hackint, [Appar. for hacking, < hack 1 , n., 7, 
+ -ing 1 .~\ A pudding made in the maw of a 
sheep or hog. It was formerly a standard dish 
at Christmas. Halliwell. 
The hackin must be boiled by day break, or else two 
young men must take the maiden by the arms, and run 
her round the market place. Aubrey MSS. 
hacking 1 (hak'ing), re. [Verbal n. of hack 1 , .] 
1. The operation of working over the faces of 
rough or worn grindstones with a hack-ham- 
mer ; also, a similar treatment of the faces of pol- 
ishing-wheels with a sharp tool of a like kind. 
By the equal application of the tools, the face of the 
stone may be kept tolerably flat with but little recourse to 
turning or hacking. O. Byrne, Artisan's Handbook, p. 23. 
2. 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. 
3. In gem-cutting, the cuts and grooves made 
in the metal laps by holding the cutting edge 
