hack, v.⁵ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hack v.⁵

[SE hack, to cut through]

(US)

1. to accomplish.

1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 250: hack: v.t. To achieve, to accomplish something.
1966		Current Sl. I:3 4/1: Hack, v. To be able to bear pressure, unpleasantness, criticism, etc., to be able to ‘take it.’.
1972		R. Barrett Lovomaniacs (1973) 42: You can’t hack a habit like chicks on the kind of allowance Ma would give me.
1978		A. Maupin Tales of the City (1984) 223: I can’t hack all these blue-haired old ladies with Mace in their pocketbooks.
1982		G.V. Higgins Patriot Game (1985) 97: I can’t hack that stuff.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 hack v. n. 1) accomplish, attempt.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 21: Couldn’t hack the job [...] too sensitive for such a big gig.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘[T]hat could provide some useful colour. If I can hack the heat’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 4125: ‘[R]elief from my status as an Aadland who couldn’t hack the Life’.

2. to understand.

1973

G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 96: It all depends where the dinner is, hack it?

hack it (v.)

1. to manage, to tolerate, to bear a difficulty, to solve a problem, to succeed; thus hack it out, hack it over, to work out, to make a plan.

1953		Randolph & Wilson Down in the Holler 250: ‘I can’t quite hack it’ is an admission that some specific task is beyond the speaker’s ability.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 18: I got enough [...] But not so much I cain’t hack it.
1977		(con. 1966-69) M. Herr Dispatches 5: I just can’t hack it back in the World.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 59: How’m I gonna hack it by myself?
1984		Tracks (Aus.) June 5: Whenever we go to the beach, guys stare at us and laugh at us. That’s cool, we can hack it [Moore 1993].
1991		D. Widgery Some Lives! 156: ‘I can’t hack it anymore,’ she wept.
1993		B. Moore Lex. of Cadet Lang. 182: usage: ‘The Age only talked to those cadets who couldn’t hack it.’.
1998		K. Anderson Night Dogs 61: ‘They can’t hack it, so they say, “it’s not my fault”’.
2005		P. Temple Broken Shore (2007) [ebook] My ex went to Darwin [...] couldn’t hack it.
2006		Burns & Pelecanos ‘That’s Got His Own’ Wire ser. 4 ep. 12 [TV script] We drag in any students that can’t hack regular classes.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 5: County jail [...] I can hack it for a while. But state prison?
2012		H. Acosta ‘Doing the Job’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] ‘That’s the way it’s supposed to be. To make sure you can hack it’.

2. (also hack up) to achieve, to succeed in a task.

1967		E. Shepard Doom Pussy 2: I’m studying to be a gunner. Ought to hack it in two more weeks.
1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 70: Hack up – to win easily.
2014		C. Eble (ed.) UNC-CH Campus Sl. Spring 2014 7: HACK/HACK UP — use technology in a new, clever way.