2. to cut one's way through the woods or bush. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

They were gallant bushwhackers, and hunters of raccoons by moonlight. W. Irving. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A guerrilla; a marauding assassin; one who pretends to be a peaceful citizen, but secretly harasses a hostile force or its sympathizers. [ U.S. ] Farrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The crimes or warfare of bushwhackers. [ U.S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An implement for cutting a notch; a large pick used in breaking stone. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A hacking; a catch in speaking; a short, broken cough. Dr. H. More. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Football) A kick on the shins, or a cut from a kick. T. Hughes. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. (Computers) A clever computer program or routine within a program to accomplish an objective in a non-obvious fashion. [ PJC ]

6. (Computers) A quick and inelegant, though functional solution to a programming problem. [ PJC ]

7. A taxicab. [ informal ] [ PJC ]

Hack saw, a handsaw having a narrow blade stretched in an iron frame, for cutting metal. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A horse, hackneyed or let out for common hire; also, a horse used in all kinds of work, or a saddle horse, as distinguished from hunting and carriage horses. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A coach or carriage let for hire; a hackney coach; formerly, a coach with two seats inside facing each other; now, usually a taxicab. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

On horse, on foot, in hacks and gilded chariots. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Hence: The driver of a hack; a taxi driver; a hackman. [ PJC ]

3. A bookmaker who hires himself out for any sort of literary work; an overworked man; a drudge. [ 1913 Webster ]

Here lies poor Ned Purdon, from misery freed,
Who long was a bookseller's hack. Goldsmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A procuress. [ 1913 Webster ]

Hack writer, a hack; one who writes for hire. “A vulgar hack writer.” Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To use frequently and indiscriminately, so as to render trite and commonplace. [ 1913 Webster ]

The word “remarkable” has been so hacked of late. J. H. Newman. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To live the life of a drudge or hack. Goldsmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Unburned brick or tile, stacked up for drying. [ 1913 Webster ]

My sword hacked like a handsaw. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: To mangle in speaking. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Computers) To program (a computer) for pleasure or compulsively; especially, to try to defeat the security systems and gain unauthorized access to a computer. [ PJC ]

4. To bear, physically or emotionally; as, he left the job because he couldn't hack the pressure. [ Colloq. ] [ PJC ]

2. To tear asunder; to break in pieces. [ 1913 Webster ]

The other divisions of the kingdom being hackled and torn to pieces. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A comb for dressing flax, raw silk, etc.; a hatchel. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Any flimsy substance unspun, as raw silk. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. One of the peculiar, long, narrow feathers on the neck of fowls, most noticeable on the cock, -- often used in making artificial flies; hence, any feather so used. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An artificial fly for angling, made of feathers. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Min.) Having fine, short, and sharp points on the surface; as, the hackly fracture of metallic iron. [ 1913 Webster ]

Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To carry in a hackney coach. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A horse or pony kept for hire. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A carriage kept for hire; a hack; a hackney coach. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A hired drudge; a hireling; a prostitute. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

There came . . . my lord the cardinal, in his ramshackle coach. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Liberty of winter pasturage. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A shiftless fellow; a low, itinerant beggar; a vagabond; a tramp. [ Prov. Eng. & Colloq. U.S. ] Forby. [ 1913 Webster ]

All the poor old shacks about the town found a friend in Deacon Marble. H. W. Beecher. [ 1913 Webster ]

These miserable shacks are so low that their occupants cannot stand erect. D. C. Worcester. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

Common of shack (Eng.Law), the right of persons occupying lands lying together in the same common field to turn out their cattle to range in it after harvest. Cowell. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To feed in stubble, or upon waste corn. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To wander as a vagabond or a tramp. [ Prev.Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

His shackles empty left; himself escaped clean. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence, that which checks or prevents free action. [ 1913 Webster ]

His very will seems to be in bonds and shackles. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A fetterlike band worn as an ornament. [ 1913 Webster ]

Most of the men and women . . . had all earrings made of gold, and gold shackles about their legs and arms. Dampier. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A link or loop, as in a chain, fitted with a movable bolt, so that the parts can be separated, or the loop removed; a clevis. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A link for connecting railroad cars; -- called also drawlink, draglink, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. The hinged and curved bar of a padlock, by which it is hung to the staple. Knight. [ 1913 Webster ]

Shackle joint (Anat.), a joint formed by a bony ring passing through a hole in a bone, as at the bases of spines in some fishes. [ 1913 Webster ]

To lead him shackled, and exposed to scorn
Of gathering crowds, the Britons' boasted chief. J. Philips. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Figuratively: To bind or confine so as to prevent or embarrass action; to impede; to cumber. [ 1913 Webster ]

Shackled by her devotion to the king, she seldom could pursue that object. Walpole. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To join by a link or chain, as railroad cars. [ U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Shackle bar, the coupling between a locomotive and its tender. [ U.S. ] --
Shackle bolt, a shackle. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. to live in a cabin, shack, or other crude dwelling. [ Slang, U. S. ] [ PJC ]