hack
1. n. Originally, a quick job that produces what is needed,
but not well. 2. n. An incredibly good, and perhaps very
time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is
needed. 3. vt. To bear emotionally or physically. "I can't hack
this heat!" 4. vt. To work on something (typically a program).
In an immediate sense: "What are you doing?" "I'm hacking
TECO." In a general (time-extended) sense: "What do you do
around here?" "I hack TECO." More generally, "I hack
`foo'" is roughly equivalent to "`foo' is my major interest
(or project)". "I hack solid-state physics." See Hacking X for Y.
5. vt. To pull a prank on. See sense 2 and hacker
(sense 5). 6. vi. To interact with a computer in a playful and
exploratory rather than goal-directed way. "Whatcha up to?"
"Oh, just hacking." 7. n. Short for hacker. 8. See
nethack. 9. [MIT] v. To explore the basements, roof ledges,
and steam tunnels of a large, institutional building, to the dismay
of Physical Plant workers and (since this is usually performed at
educational institutions) the Campus Police. This activity has
been found to be eerily similar to playing adventure games such as
Dungeons and Dragons and Zork. See also vadding.
Constructions on this term abound. They include `happy hacking'
(a farewell), `how's hacking?' (a friendly greeting among
hackers) and `hack, hack' (a fairly content-free but friendly
comment, often used as a temporary farewell). For more on this
totipotent term see "The Meaning of `Hack'". See
also neat hack, real hack.
