Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also hackman) the driver of a hackney carriage.

1687		Halifax Addns. to Works (1750) 75: But at St. Clement's Church, eat out the back; / And slipping through the Palsgrave, bilkt poor Hack .
1713		R. Steele Guardian (1826) No. 14 60: The happy minute [...] when our hack had the happiness to take in his expected fare, attended by her mother .
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Dec. 6/4: Having stopped at the latter place for a short time, the hackman drove to Flushing .
1882		A. Trumble Mysteries of N.Y. 15: ‘There ain’t no use talking,’ said a grizzled old night hackman [...] ‘I’ll lay my hack and hosses again a five cent nickel [etc]’man.
1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 105: They licked two Hackmen, set fire to an Awning, pulled down many Signs.
1900		L.A. Eve. Express 22 Nov. 🌐 The hackman who [...] did not gather in enough yellow gold with which to build for his declining years a mansion [...] ought to be investigated by his union.
1901		J. Flynt World of Graft 64: I have found the ‘cabby’ a mine of information in every city that I have visited. [...] If you can find a wise hackman he can put you ‘next’ to more things on more policemen’s beats.
1913–14		Van Loan ‘For the Pictures’ in Taking the Count 324: The hack can drive on.
1914		Ade ‘The Dream That Came Out’ in Ade’s Fables 159: Selena pulled her tall-grass French on a Hackman, but there was nothing doing.
1917		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 30 Apr. [synd. col.] After conducting himself as an almots model hackman for thirteen years [etc].

2. a prostitute; one who is sexually experienced [abbr. hackney n. (1)].

c.1775		Only True and Exact Calendar title page: A great many Common Hacks are in Town, to Run for small Plates, among whom are, Miss Jenny Whim, Molly May, Dianna Frost, Miss Handy, Dolly Thunderbum.
[1796		Sporting Mag. Aug. VIII 271/1: She [i.e. ‘a sporting lady’] was originally bought in london, by two gentlemen in partnership, and used then as a common hack].
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) VIII 1528: These varied positions test whether the female is a hack or a greenhorn.

3. (also hackney, hackney writer) a reporter, a journalist, formerly derog. but recently popular, if tongue-in-cheek.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Hacks or Hackneys hirelings. Hackney-scriblers, Poor Hirelings Mercenary Writers.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: hackney writer one who writes for attornies or booksellers.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1812		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Picturesque (1868) 84: They’re common hacks.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 511: ‘I would not, were I a bricklayer’s labourer,’ exclaimed Bob, ‘exchange situations with this unfortunate literary hack.’.
1868		G.J. Whyte-Melville White Rose 195: I’m what they call a hack, I believe, on a penny paper.
1925		Dos Passos Manhattan Transfer 391: In spite of what these journalistic hacks and quacks would call extenuating circumstances.
1935		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 1 June [synd. col.] I’m no exception to that unattainable urge that afflicts every hack. That is to quit everything and go off some place.
1945		(con. 1928) R. Westerby Mad in Pursuit 94: This is Miss Aiken, a fellow hack.
1958		H.S. Thompson letter 31 Mar. in Proud Highway (1997) 113: Who are these hacks who spew out these articles, anyway?
1967		H.S. Thompson letter 28 June in Proud Highway (1997) 625: Anderson’s review was typical of most screeds turned out by cheap hacks.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 226: Sometimes he can get a bit stroppy with hacks.
1997		A. Frewin London Blues 32: Your typical hack wants the big one placed on his desk—all trussed-up and oven-ready.
2000		Indep. Rev. 4 Jan. 4: The usual hacks [...] savoured his humiliation with sadistic pleasure.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 304: [A] hack is scarcely better than a cop.
2010		IOL News (Western Cape) 24 Dec. 🌐 An extended Vaalie-Cape Town family settling down to lamb stuffed with rosemary [...] leaving no leftovers for a hungry sport hack.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] A titty-mag hack who’d gone to the dark side and started reporting crime.

4. anyone who acts as a ‘yes-man’, esp. in politics.

1831		Satirist (London) 10 Apr. 4/3: [of a newspaper] That Tory hack, The Morning Post, has the following sentence in one of its leaden articles .
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 106: A party hack by the name of Creeden, a former chief of police, had been appointed by Mayor Marley.
1964		A. Baraka Slave in Three Negro Plays (1969) Act I: The only people who went out were those tired political hacks.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 157: A political hack like Haynes flouting the law.
1994		Michael Burlingame Inner World of Abraham Lincoln 1: [heading] Lincoln’s Midlife Crisis: From Party Hack to Statesman.
2003		Roger W. Bowen Japan’s Dysfunctional Democracy 11: Mon Yoshiro, an LDP party hack not held in high regard by fellow members.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] One of the mayor’s hacks says, ‘The community is not going to like that’.
2022		A. Kirzman Giuliani 79: [A] boozy black-tie charity event filling the Hilton Hotel’s grand ballroom with [...] assorted government hacks and bottom-feeders.

5. attrib. use of sense 3.

1936		‘George Orwell’ Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1962) 72: It was queer that a prosperous hack critic like Paul Doring should live in such a place.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 60: If I was a real bright guy instead of a hack newspaper man, maybe I’d think he didn’t kill her at all.

6. (US) a taxicab.

[1704		R. Steele Lying Lover iii. ii: We’ll take a Hack—Our Maids shall go with us].
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 70/2: We walked along the pier and outside, where were a number of omnibusses and hacks awaiting the arrival of the packet.
1875		M. Thompson Hoosier Mosaics 72: Carrie and I must hasten at once to Cincinnati. The hack is waiting; so good bye, my dear friend, God bless you!
1885		‘O. Henry’ letter in Rolling Stones (1913) 267: The hack drivers danced in the pavements in fierce, wild glee.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 33: At nine o’clock dey comes chasin up t’ door in a hack.
1907		‘Hugh McHugh’ Beat It 41: Eighty-seven hack-drivers with tears in their eyes.
1914		R. Lardner You Know Me Al (1984) 185: I wish you would ask Ben Smith will he have a hack down to the depo to meet us.
1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 104: Dodging between two hacks at the curb I crossed to the opposite side of the street.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 115: The other lads piled into a hack, and were off.
1941		J.K. Butler ‘Saint in Silver’ in Goulart (1967) 48: I sat there in the hack counting over the night’s winnings.
1952		(con. 1910s) ‘Harry Grey’ Hoods (1953) 35: A Ford taxicab was standing outside Sam’s [...] ‘It looks like Cockeye’s brother’s hack.’.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 134: Drivin’ a hack or truck, workin’ in a factory.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 136: The arrangements call for the hack to show up sometime after nine.
2005		E. Weiner Big Boat to Bye-Bye 27: We grabbed a hack.

7. in attrib. use of sense 5.

1933

‘Paul Cain’ Fast One (1936) 29: You’re a swell driver, Jakie. You should’ve stayed in the hack racket.

8. (US) a hearse.

1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 392: The Irish got to piling up hacks so, on their funerals, that a funeral left them ragged and hungry for two years afterward.
1917		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 147: Bring on your rubber-tired hack. / They’re going to take Albert to the graveyard.
1925		Odum & Johnson Negro and His Songs (1964) 198: Fohty dollar coffin, eighty dollar hack, / carried po’ man to cemetery but failed to bring him back.
a.1940		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 140: Bring out your rubber-tired buggy. / Bring out your rubber-tired hack. / I’m taking my man to the graveyard.
1968–69		in DARE.

9. (US) an automobile (other than a taxi).

1916		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 1 Apr. [synd. col.] [They] were rattled down to policeheadquarters [...] in the town hack, known officially as the patrol wagon.
1926		Odum & Johnson Negro Workaday Songs 97: Lord, I’m gonna buy me rubber-tire hack.
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 319: That worn-out hack!
1935		R.L. Bellem ‘Beyond Justice’ in Spicy Detective Stories Nov. 🌐 That new hack of mine was a speedy sled.
1938		C. Plunkett ‘The Devil’s Race Track’ in Detective Yarns Sept. 🌐 There was a snub-nosed thirty-two automatic in the glove compartment of my hack.
1952		W.R. Burnett Little Men, Big World 71: One day, when he had enough moo to leave the big town, he’d have a hack like that, only maybe pink with cream-coloured upholstery.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 49: He used her credit card to buy gas for the hack.

10. (Aus./US, also hackman) a taxi-driver.

1934		B. Appel Brain Guy 79: Hell, that hack must’ve figured you a big shot.
a.1946		J. McNulty ‘Some Nights when Nothing Happens’ This Place on Third Avenue (2001) 4: Johnny, one of the hackmen outside, put the whole thing in a nutshell.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 191: Now I’m just a mug hack lousing the city, but even I get to estimate the rake-off on such joints.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 61: Talking to the hack on the way into the city.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 265: The hack pulls up on Vine Street in front of the McCullough house.
2004		E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 156: I gave the hack the thumbs-up.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 28: He had to snap his fingers at the hack, who was [...] listening to the news.

11. an incompetent, an inadequate; occas. as adj.

1958		R. Chandler Playback 206: I’m a tired hack with a doubtful future.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 277: The man seemed to relish being maligned as a hack and a clown.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 July 10: One drastic face-lift performed by a hack surgeon.
2018		G. Disher Kill Shot [ebook] Like most escort services, hers catered to convention hacks—husbands and fathers who were variously shy, drunk, impotent, thankful, underappreciated and aggrieved.

12. (N.Z.) a customer, as in a pub.

1964

J.A. Lee Shiner Slattery 119: ‘Look, there’s two hacks on the rail.’ [...] ‘Two customers.’.

13. a worker of any type, the image is of monotonous ‘grind’.

1991

B. Hamper Rivethead (1992) 55: It’s those overpaid, spineless factory hacks and their demonic craving for firewater.

14. (US Und.) a rented gun.

2006

G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 241: ‘The gun got passed on or sold’ [...] ‘Or it was a hack [...] Whoever killed Asa Johnson rented it to Lyons.’.