hack

ot noun

1. A trick, shortcut, skill, or novelty method to increase productivity, efficiency or ease. Putting your phone in a sandwich bag when you go to the beach is such a great hack.
2. A swing of the bat at a pitched ball by the batter. He took a few hacks, but the pitcher finally struck him out.
3. A person, often a journalist, hired to do routine work. I got by on hack work for years before I finally published my novel.
4. (authorship) An untalented writer. Dason is nothing but a two-bit hack.

fe’l verb

1. To chop or cut down in a rough manner. They hacked the brush down and made their way through the jungle.
2. To cough noisily. This cold is awful. I can't stop hacking.
3. To withstand or put up with a difficult situation. Can you hack it out here with no electricity or running water?
4. To make a quick code change to patch a computer program, often one that, while being effective, is inelegant or makes the program harder to maintain. I hacked in a fix for this bug, but we'll still have to do a real fix later.