hacking

comparative more hacking · superlative most hacking

1. Short and interrupted, broken, jerky; hacky.

   A hacking cough. A hacking laugh. A hacking breath. A hacking cry.

   1 more example

   “So now everything's fine.” I uttered a hacking laugh. “No,” I said, in answer to a query from Aunt Dahlia. “I have not accidentally swallowed my tonsils, I was merely laughing hackingly. Ironical that the young blister should say that everything is fine, for at this very moment disaster stares us in the eyeball.”

   1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XX, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of hack

plural hackings

1. uncountableusuallycomputingPlayful solving of technical work that requires deep understanding, especially of a computer system.
2. uncountableusuallycomputingUnauthorized attempts to bypass the security mechanisms of an information system or network.

   .

3. uncountableusuallymedicineA dry coughing; the emission of a succession of short coughs.
4. uncountableusuallyAmerican footballA kick in the shins.
5. uncountableusuallymassageThe act of striking the muscles with the side of the hand.
6. UKcountableusuallyA riding or journey on horseback.
7. obsoleteuncountableusuallyThe operation of working over the faces of rough or worn grindstones with a hack-hammer.
8. obsoleteuncountableusuallybusinessThe separation of a course of stones into two smaller courses, when there are not enough large stones to form a single course.
9. obsoleteuncountableusuallygem cuttingThe 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.
10. obsoleteuncountableusuallybrick makingThe piling of bricks for drying.

plural Hackings

1. A surname.