English
hacker
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /hækə(ɹ)/
Noun

hacker (plural hackers)

  1. (computing) One who is expert at programming and solving problems with a computer.
    • 1984, Venture (volume 6, part 1, page 142)
      A hacker starts with nothing but a dream and a floppy disk and presently finds himself in a business that's doubled and trebled. Three "diskzines" — magazines on floppy disks — started cheaply by entrepreneurs who placed ads in obscure computer journals […]
  2. (computing) One who uses a computer to gain unauthorized access to data, or to carry out malicious attacks.
    Synonyms: cracker
    • 2007, Committee on Improving Cybersecurity Research in the United States, ‎Toward a Safer and More Secure Cyberspace
      Typically, one hacker will annoy another; the offended party replies by launching a denial-of-service attack against the offender.
  3. (computing) A computer security professional.
  4. Something that hacks; a tool or device for hacking.
    • 1825?, "Hannah Limbrick, Executed for Murder", in The Newgate Calendar: comprising interesting memoirs of the most notorious characters, page 231:
      Thomas Limbrick, who was only nine years of age, said he lived with his mother when Deborah was beat: that his mother throwed her down all along with her hands; and then against a wall, and kicked her in the belly: that afterwards she picked her up, and beat her with the hacker on the side of the head; wiped the blood off with a dish-clout, and took her up to bed after she was dead.
    • July 1846, John Macleod, "The Tar and Turpentine Business of North Carolina", on page 15 of the Monthly Journal of Agriculture, volume II, number 1:
      When the dipping is thus over, the next work is to "chip" or scarify the tree immediately over the box [...]. This is done by an instrument usually called a "hacker," sometimes "shave." Its form is somewhat like a "round shave," narrowing at the cutting place to the diameter of an inch, with a shank, to be fixed securely into a strong, heavy handle of about two feet in length, while the faces of the trees are low, but the handle is made longer as years advance the faces higher.
    • 1877, Reports and Awards of the United States Centennial Commission (regarding the) International Exhibition, 1876 (Francis A. Walker, editor), Reports on Awards, Group XXI, page 13:
      23. George C. howard, Philadelphia, U.S.
      GRINDSTONE HACKER.
      Report.--Commended for the contrivance of an instrument, called a "hacker," that is used in trimming grindstones. This hacker turns with the stone, and is drawn across in a slide rest, and fulfills its important function satisfactorily.
  5. (UK, regional) A fork-shaped tool used to harvest root vegetables.
    • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Chapter 43,
      The upper half of each turnip had been eaten off by the live-stock, and it was the business of the two women to grub up the lower or earthy half of the root with a hooked fork called a hacker, that it might be eaten also.
    • 1893, George Edward Dartnell and Edward Hungerford Goddard, A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Wiltshire, London: English Dialect Society, p. 72,
      […] a ‘tater-hacker,’ an old three-grained garden-fork, which by bending down the tines or ‘grains’ at right angles to the handle has been converted into something resembling a rake, but used as a hoe.
  6. Someone who hacks.
    1. Particularly, one who cuts with rough or heavy blows.
      • 1902, Our Wonderful Progress, Trumbull White (editor), page 623–624:
        In January or February the "hacker," with his keen-bladed ax, begins the round which ends the season. [...] About a quart of sap is taken from each box by means of the trowel-shaped scoop used by the dipper, and then the hacker comes along and starts the flow afresh by wounding the tree again.
    2. Particularly, one who kicks wildly or roughly.
    3. Particularly, one who is consistent and focuses on accomplishing a task or several tasks.
  7. (US) One who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular activity, especially a sport such as golf or tennis.
    a tennis hacker
    • 1969, Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five, New York: Dial, 2005, Chapter 4, p. 108,
      And then Billy was a middle-aged optometrist again, playing hacker’s golf this time—on a blazing summer Sunday morning.
  8. (US) One who operates a taxicab
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