New York street sign, c. 1965
The term hacking has a number of meanings, not always very well-defined:
- In connection with computers and computer software, see hack and hacker.
- A reference to working as a taxicab driver (because a taxicab can be called a hack, a shortened form of hackney carriage)
- To attack something with a blade in an imprecise manner - "hacking down the tall grass with a machete"
- To ride a horse cross-country
- Coughing
- A category of computer and video game, hack and slash, consists of repeatedly killing a large number of monsters, typically in a world with a medieval theme
- Playing footbag
- In rugby football, kicking an opponent in the shins
- In University slang at MIT and elsewhere, Urban exploration ("roof and tunnel hacking") and pranking
- To drive fast in British slang, e.g. " I was hacking up the M1..."
- At Oxford University, to lead a politically active life in the Oxford Union or OUSU, used particularly with negative connotations to imply over-ambition.
