hacking

Meanings

Adjective

• Short and interrupted, broken, jerky; hacky.

Verb

• Present participle of hack

Noun

• Playful solving of technical work that requires deep understanding, especially of a computer system.
• Unauthorized attempts to bypass the security mechanisms of an information system or network. See also cracker.
• A dry coughing; the emission of a succession of short coughs.
• A kick in the shins.
• The act of striking the muscles with the side of the hand.
• A riding or journey on horseback.
• The operation of working over the faces of rough or worn grindstones with a hack-hammer.
• The separation of a course of stones into two smaller courses, when there are not enough large stones to form a single course.
• 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.
• The piling of bricks for drying.

Origin

• From Middle English *hackynge, hackande, hakand, equivalent to hack + -ing.
• From Middle English hackynge, hakkynge, hacckinge, equivalent to hack + -ing.