hackney

plural hackneys

1. archaiccountablehistoricalA horse suitable for riding; specifically, a strong medium-sized horse with a high-stepping trot, often used in harness competitions; also, such horses collectively as a breed.
2. broadlycountablehistoricaluncountableA horse which is hired out.

   Synonyms: hireling

3. broadlycountablehistoricaluncountableIn full hackney carriage, hackney coach: a horse-drawn carriage which is hired out.

   "Mamma would die if she knew. The boy," replied Georgiana, "walked with us to Oxford Street, and we took a hackney-coach. Will Mrs. Gooch ever forgive us for getting out of it at her door?"

   1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, →OCLC, page 186

4. archaicfigurativelyuncountableWriting which is dull or follows a predictable formula, produced so the writer can be paid rather than as a creative work; literary hackwork.

   Not that the existence of Grub street is to be doubted: it was, indeed, a grim actuality, and many a garreter realised by experience / How unhappy's the fate / To live by one's pate / And to be forced to write hackney for bread.

   quoted in 1972, Pat Rogers, Grub Street: Studies in a Subculture (page 384)

5. countablefigurativelyobsoleteuncountableA person who does menial work; a drudge, a hireling, a lackey.
6. countablefigurativelyobsoleteuncountableA person or thing that is exploited.
7. countablederogatoryfigurativelyobsoleteuncountableA prostitute.

   Synonyms: abandons, alley cat, almah, bangtail, Bankside lady, bargirl, bat, beotch

1. archaicnot comparableSynonym of hackneyed (“of speech or writing, a phrase, etc.: uninteresting and unoriginal from being repeated too often”).

   hackney authors

   1 more example

   his accumulative and hackney tongue

   a. 1685, Wentworth Dillon, 4th Earl of Roscommon, The Ghost of the old House of Commons to the new one appointed to meet at Oxford

   Synonyms: clichéd, tired, trite, banal, bathetic, bromidic, cheesy, stock

2. not comparableobsoleteCommonplace, usual; also, frequent.

present singular third person hackneys · participle present hackneying · participle past hackneyed · past hackneyed

1. figurativelytransitivechiefly passive voiceTo make (something) uninteresting and unoriginal through frequent repetition; to make (something) trite.
2. obsoletetransitiveTo use (a horse) for ordinary riding.
3. obsoleteraretransitivepassive voiceTo transport (someone) on an ordinary riding horse.
4. obsoleteraretransitivepassive voiceTo transport (someone) in a hackney carriage; also (followed by the dummy pronoun it), to ride in or on a hackney carriage.

   […] To her, who, frugal only that her thrift / May feed excesses she can ill afford, / Is hackneyed home unlackeyed; […]

   1785, William Cowper, The Task

5. figurativelyobsoletetransitiveTo cause (someone, or their mind, etc.) to be less refined or sensitive; to blunt, to coarsen.
6. figurativelyobsoletetransitiveTo give or offer (something) for money; also (also reflexive), to hire (oneself, or something) out for money.
7. figurativelyobsoletetransitiveTo prostitute (someone).
8. figurativelyobsoletetransitivechiefly passive voiceTo hurry or rush (someone or something).
9. figurativelyobsoletetransitivechiefly passive voiceTo treat or use (a person) as a menial worker.
10. derogatoryfigurativelyobsoletetransitivechiefly passive voiceFollowed by in: of a person: to be made experienced or used to (something); to become accustomed or habituated.
11. intransitiveobsoleteTo use a horse for ordinary riding.
12. intransitiveobsoletechiefly passive voiceFollowed by at: of a person or thing: to be hurried or rushed towards something.
13. intransitiveobsoletechiefly passive voiceTo treat or use a person as a menial worker.

1. A London borough in Greater London, England, where once upon a time many horses were pastured.
2. A town in eastern London, England, within this borough (OS grid ref TQ3584).
3. An English habitational surname from Old English.
4. One of several breeds of compact English horses: see hackney
5. in compounds(means of transportation): see hackney.